Paperie Petals

Create

2012-01-30T09:58:00.002-05:00

I had the greatest time creating handmade gifts for Christmas this year! The only down side is that I had a lot of presents to create and I decided to start making them about two weeks before Christmas...umm...what is wrong with me??!! LOL!

I've share a few projects so far and this is the next one on the list! This was a great quick and easy projects but I really liked the end result.

I started by attaching a piece of metal tape to a piece of cardstock and I then used an embossing folder to emboss the metal. I then used a paint dauber to apply blank paint over the entire surface of the embossed metal. Once the metal was dry, I used a filing tool to remove some of the paint from the raised areas, leaving the paint in the recessed areas...cool, huh? (Thank Tim Holtz for that idea!)

Once my decorated metal was attached to a piece of black cardstock I added punched butterflies, from a Martha Stewart punch, to the front. Tiny pearls make the perfect butterfly bodies! The paper "create" banner was made using PSA Essentials stamps and was then attached with foam tape. This does have some dimension to it so I removed the glass from the frame. You could also create this same kind of project using a shadow box.

Enjoy!!

Serene Silhouettes

2012-01-25T21:45:00.003-05:00

Someone has a video (hint, hint, it's me) that will be posted on the Sweet 'n Sassy Forum next week (January 31st to be exact) and this card provides you with a little hint about the tutorial. Any guesses??

This card was created using the Serene Silhouettes stamps set (the sentiment is from the Wildflowers set) from Sweet 'n Sassy. I used two different colors of green and pink to stamp the grass and flowers. I like starting with a light ink color when stamping my first image and then come back and layer either the same image or a different one on top. This creates some great dimension! And using lighter ink colors allows you to stamp your sentiment over part of the image. I love that look!

The fun notebook portion of the card was created using a die from My Favorite Things. The pale green polka dot paper is from We R Memory Keepers (did you know they make paper? They have beautiful designs!) I finished off my card with a button and twine (the twine is also from Sweet 'n Sassy).

Enjoy and be sure to visit out Forum on January 31st for our latest tutorial video!

Christmas Angel

2012-01-23T10:11:00.005-05:00

Is it too late to share another Christmas project? I mean this could spur you on to get those homemade ornaments done early, right? :-) The reality is that I'm painfully behind on my blogging this week, even though I have a ton of projects in the works. Is anyone else like that out there? One week I have a ton of projects lined up to share and then the next I'm busy working on projects but nothing ready to share! It's feast or famine!!

So on to this precious angel! Isn't it the cutest!! This is an idea I found on Splitcoast, a project found here (in her posting there is also a link with directions). I used a circle cutter to create the circles to form the body. The arms were created by using half a circle for each arm. Once the circles were cut out I stamped all over them with snowflakes from the fabulous Snowflake Flourish stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy. I then added just a thin line of glitter around the bottom edges of the dress and arms. (Oh, the "arms" were hot glued onto the body) The head is made from a small ornament. I drew the wings (a template is available from the SCS link, noted above) and the completely covered them with silver glitter...oh the bling! The finishing touches were tiny beads for a hallo and a few pieces of ribbon.

This was a super easy project and there are so many options for decorating! I gave this as a present to someone that I work with but I thought that this would be a great gift for a few friends next year as well. Who wouldn't love handmade ornaments!

Enjoy and be sure to check out the tutorial on SCS!

I Woof You

2012-01-19T17:51:00.003-05:00

Hi there! Welcome to the Sweet 'n Sassy Friday Feature, which is an opportunity for us to share stamp sets that were released some time in the past. What a great reminder of all of the wonderful Sweet 'n Sassy sets! Today's Friday Feature is this darling puppy from the Woof You set, which comes with this sweet little dog image, four sentiments, as well as a bone and puppy prints!! So cute!

I decided to turn my card into a Valentine's Day card for my hubby!! (This is a great set for creating those manly cards!) I added some spots to my puppy image using a fine tip marker from Copic. The paper I used is from Bo Bunny (I'm totally digged V-Day paper this year!) I paper pieced the bandana, using more heart covered paper from Crate. The button is from Papertreyink and the twine is from Sweet 'n Sassy! Enjoy today's card and be sure to check out all of the Woof You cards over on the SNSS blog! Oh, and the layout is this week's Sweet Stop sketch, you can read about the weekly challenge here.

Sweet 'n Sassy Sponsorship

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

Do you know about the Card Positioning Systems (CPS) sketch challenges? If not, you should check out their site! Each week a new sketch is posted and you can be entered into a prize drawing if you participate by submitting a card using the sketch!

This week the sponsor is Sweet 'n Sassy and I'm pleased to be able to share a card using this week's sketch! Be sure to hop on over to the CPS site to learn more about the prizes that are available this week!

For this card I used a brand new Sweet 'n Sassy set, Warm Hello. Isn't that snowman adorable! I definitely have a thing for snowmen in the winter...hummm...maybe because I live in the great white north where we're typically surrounded by snow!

Before stamping my image, I sprayed the cardstock with Perfect Pearls for a great shimmery look. I just feel like you need a little something extra when you're dealing with a mostly white image on a white background and Perfect Pearls is the perfect solution! The image was then stamped and colored with Copics. My snowman is paired with this lovely wintery paper from Little Yellow Bicycle and grey fabric-covered buttons from SU!

Enjoy today's card and be sure to check out the sketch at CPS!

A Girl of Many Moods

2012-01-17T09:34:00.002-05:00

Hi all! I'm sharing a card featuring this darling stamp and sentiment from PSA Essentials. Isn't this the greatest sentiment? I laughed out loud when I first read it!

The card layout is from a publication call (I didn't make it but now I can share my card sooner rather than later!) and it's a great way to showcase lots of fun designer papers! All of these papers are from My Minds Eye and I love them all!

For the image, I stamped it twice on cream cardstock and colored them with Copics. I cut out one entire girl image and then just the heart and cupcake from the second image and then attached both of them with foam tape. I attached a tiny red rhinestone (from Taylored Expressions) to the top of the cupcake. The background of the card was embossed with a folder from Sizzix.

Enjoy and check out all the great stamps from PSA!

Cherished Friend

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday everyone! I have a card posted on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog today...Head on over to check out all of the details!

You & Me

2012-01-12T09:03:00.003-05:00

Psst...did you know that Korin is now the Splitcoast Card Sketches Queen!! Seriously, how exciting is that!! Two of my favorite SCS challanges are the CAS challenge...and...wait for it...the sketch challenge! Nothing makes me happier than a good sketch and Korin always does an amazing job with sketches! I'm so excited for her and Sweet 'n Sassy!!

Since I had a few minutes last night I knew I had to sneak away and create a card for this week's sketch. (Check out all the details here and participate with us this week!) And I had to use this darling, and I do mean darling, new stamp set from SNSS called You & Me. I just love the cute images with their tiny faces and the sentiments in the set are so much fun!

Now...I know that this paper line, from October Afternoon, is more focused on a sewing theme but this paper reminded me of an old time diner, it has that antique look, doesn't it, so I thought it would be perfect with the salt and pepper shakers. (The little card that the S&P shakers are in was included with the October Afternoon Farmhouse paper pad)

I stamped the S&P shakers on a separate sheet of cardstock, colored them (and following Cathy's fabulous idea) I added a little salt and pepper to each container! I then cut them out and attached them to the little card with foam tape. (I stamped the image on the card so the sentiment would be on the card and then placed the colored shakers on top of the stamped image). Then I simply added the You & Me sentiment and a few brads! Fun set, fun card, and fun sketch!

Enjoy!

Holiday Scrapbooking

2012-01-10T09:39:00.003-05:00

It's day two of the holiday scrapbooking posts! :-) This layout is on the PSA Essentials blog this morning and when reading the write up that Libby posted I noted that she made a great point; scrapbook those Christmas memories shortly after the holidays. If we wait too long, we tend to forget some of the more precious things that were said or done. This year I am taking this advice! My photos have been shipped from my favorite online printer and my album is already finished, just waiting for the addition of photos and embellishments. I can't wait to share!

Of course this photo isn't from this year...it's from 2008! Nothing like going back a few years to scrapbook! However, I loved this photo of the boys and knew it would be perfect to highlight on a page. And in 2008 we had quite a time getting a good photo. We all ended up laughing hysterically, some of us (little boys) crying and whining, some of us (me) giving up, and some of us (my husband) finally capturing the perfect photo! Our Christmas card that year showcased some of our outtakes, such as my youngest sticking out his tongue, both of them looking completely exasperated, and one of them with their heads down on the arm of the chair, all done with posing!

On this page I used a number of PSA stamp sets; I created my own designer paper by stamping snowflakes all over a piece of cream cardstock. A number of holiday images were stamped, colored, and attached to small circles, which acted as perfect embellishments, and the 25 was highlighted on a few layers of cardstock and designer paper.

The designer paper is from Imaginisce, ribbon is from May Arts, and the date and sentiment stickers are from Jillibean Soup.

Enjoy!!

Christmas Joy

2012-01-09T09:01:00.002-05:00

I know, Christmas is over and the last thing you want to think about is wrapping another present or picking up more pine needles, but how about scrapbooking those precious holiday photos! It's definitely time for scrapbooking and today I'm happy to share this layout, featuring PSA Essentials stamps, of one of our Christmas mornings from a few years ago.

The designer paper I used is from Little Yellow Bicycle and the fun sparkly holly is from Petaloo (love their designs!) The present and holly leaves, all in circles, are from PSA.

This was a fun layout, one I found in a book I think, and perfect for showing off multiple photos. My goal for pages is to complete 2-4 pages for an event and then put the remaining photos in standard photo sleeves. This allows me to create scrapbook pages much more quickly as I'm only scrapbooking a few photos.

This page was perfect to capture some of the highlights of our 2008 Christmas; Cooper's obsession with his electric toothbrush (even trying to steal his brother's toothbrush), my grandmother from NY being with us, Carter delighting in one of his favorite story books, getting his first watch, and both of them modeling the handmade knight costumes that I made for them that year. The plastic swords and shields over paired with their jammies was fabulous! This is definitely one of the greatest joys of scrapbooking, being able to go back and relive those precious memories.

Enjoy and be sure to check out their PSA Essentials blog for more beautiful work featuring their stamps!

Sweet 'n Sassy Release Day!

2012-01-05T08:00:00.002-05:00

I'm so excited about this month's Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps release, it's amazing!!! Eight new clear stamp sets and three new sets of dies will be available in the store tonight. Make sure you've got a warm, tasty beverage and some donuts ready....you won't want to miss a bit of the inspiration we have for you today!

To be honest, I had the hardest time deciding which project to share because I LOVE each and every set that we're annoucing today!! (EDITED: I decided to add the second card, using the You & Me set!!) But I had to go with the card above because I just adore silhouette images and this new set, called Together Silhouettes, is no exception! I paired the images with this beautiful paper from We R Memory Keepers and ribbon from American Crafts. I also added two stick pins adored with glass beads...a perfect accent for this vintage looking paper. For my second card I stamped the images and cut them out so that I could pop them up on the mini tag. And seriously, are these not the cutest images and sentiments!! Love them! (I even added some glossy accents to the top of the donut so it looks just like glaze!) The fun paper is from October Afternoon and the seam binding is from The Cat's Pajamas. Enjoy!! And now take a look at the rest of the Design Divas (and our very special January guest)...they've all whipped up some gorgeousness today!

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog

We hope you can make plans to join us tonight in our Member Company forums over on Splitcoaststampers. We're having a Release Party, and it is full of great activities, stamp set reveals, and fun with friends! All of the partying will take place in our Release Party forum, so be sure to bookmark it! Hope to see you there!

Handmade Holiday Gifts

2012-01-04T08:56:00.002-05:00

Greetings! I'm back today to share another one of my handmade Christmas gifts! (Forgive the major glare on these photos...My sweet hubby bought me a brand new, fancy camera for Christmas and I'm still figuring out how to use it!) This is a gift that I made for a friend of mine that I've made through working and teaching at Wholly Scrap! Isn't that so much fun...not only do we have great customers but we have great friends that are also customers! Working in a scrapbook store is just about the happiest place on earth!!

The picture above is of the finishsed piece, in the frame, which also includes that lovely glare! Ugh...Below is the piece out of the frame so it's easier to see all of the fun pieces.

I created two of these (will share the other one in a few days) and they were both so much fun to make! I started by finding coordinating decorative papers and then using three plain pieces of cardstock that worked with the colors in the DP. I then cut each square down to 1.5" and laid out the entire design, mixing the DP and plain cardstock, on my work space.

Once the papers were cut, I got to decorate all of those little squares! I added buttons, letters, die cuts (heart and butterflies by My Favorite Things), stick pins, flowers, ribbon, and rub ons! Then each little square got glued to a piece of white cardstock. To create this you'll need a shadown box so that the popped up pieces don't get squished. I really enjoyed creating handmade gifts this year...so satisfying and enjoyable to give gifts from the heart and your own hands!

Enjoy and be sure to check back in tomorrow for the big Sweet 'n Sassy release day reveal!! I can't wait!!

Joy to the World

2012-01-02T09:06:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!! We had quite a New Year celebration...complete with two sick kids, a husband who needed stitches in his finger, and a serious lack of sleep! Goodness, what a start to 2012!! I'm praying that the rest of the month is a bit calmer!

Today's card is one that I created for a Splitcoast CAS design team challange. I did make it to round two with this card but failed to make it to the finish line. Humm...no problem, I did mange to grab a guest spot and I'm very happy and thankful about that! (I'll be a guest in the Feb. time frame)

I created the snowman by using the Tim Holtz snowman die and then added color with Distress Ink. I used a script stamp, also from Tim, to add more design to the snowman. The hills were hand cut and I used a Quickie glue pen to add a tiny bit of glitter to the hills. The scarf is seam binding from The Cat's Pajamas (love this stuff!) and the button is from Papertreyink. **Tip** I was able to get that crinkled look on the scarf by spraying water on the ribbon and scrunching it tightly into a little ball. I then carefully used my heat gun to dry the ribbon. When the ribbon is completely dry, it remains crinkled...love it! The designer paper is from Little Yellow Bicycle and the sentiment is from Sweet 'n Sassy.

Enjoy and best wishes for 2012!!

Encourage Your Hopes

2011-12-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

Now that the Christmas presents have all been delivered, I can share them on my blog! *smile* Handmade crafts are simply the best gift to give and receive (at leasts for us crafty types!) and I had the greatest time creating presents this year. Since I work in a scrapbook store, I simply had to create my own gifts 'cause it just wouldn't be right to give other crafters something from a store!

Today's project was created for one of the other instructors at our store, who is one of the most talented paper crafting ladies I know as well as being a very skilled clothing designer so I wanted to give her something that married her love of paper crafts and clothing. This is what I came up with! I was actually inspired by a project found on Splitcoast that was created by Janelle Stollfus. I loved the elements on her page and followed a similar layout. To begin, I used this great pattern kraft paper from Tim Holtz. The paper is already embossed so once I applied ink over the entire page, the detailed lines appeared. I then aged the paper by using water and a variety of inks. I then added the embossed (and distressed) kraft cardstock. These pieces were created by using embossing folders. Next came those big 'ol flowers, which are from Petaloo. I toyed with creating my own flowers but these were so pretty that I opted to use these instead (and they were the perfect color!) I added a sentiment, stamped on a mailing tag (sentiment from Tim), rhinestones, buttons, and a few snippets of ribbon. It's those extra embellies that make all the difference! Oh, I did make the tiny rosette, using a die from The Cat's Pajamas.

Hope you enjoyed today's project...stay tuned for more of my handmade holiday creations!! (And the Sweet 'n Sassy release is coming up on January 5....Yippee!!)

Happy Birthday - Tutorial

2011-12-27T10:01:00.004-05:00

Greetings!! I hope everyone is doing well and had a lovely holiday! We celebrated Christmas yesterday and so I'm just started to come out of the holiday fog! I'm at work today and enjoying be back out among all the fabulous paper crafting goodness!

Today it feels odd to not share a holiday card or project (although I do have more to share later this week!) but I thought I'd share a quick video tutorial that I created a few weeks ago for the store blog. This is a card created using Elizabeth Craft Designs stickers. These are great outline stickers that can be filled with glitter and then colored...very cool (and very quick and easy!)

Here's a close up shot of all that amazing sparkle and shine! The designer paper is from Fancy Pants Design and the rhinestone swirl is from Zva. And here is the video - enjoy!

Cocoa's Seasons Greetings

2011-12-23T09:42:00.002-05:00

I have a card posted on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog this morning!! It's a card with sweet little Cocoa peeking out from behind his favorite present...a giant hunk of cheese! (This might be one of my favorite presents too!)

This image is from the A Cocoa Kind of Christmas stamp set and has been colored with Copic markers. The designer paper is from Little Yellow Bicycle (love this line) and the ribbon and button is from my random stash. I also added a tiny bit of bling to the ribbon, you can just see the shine is the photo.

Enjoy today's card and I'm hoping you have a very blessed Christmas!

Warm Wishes

2011-12-21T09:30:00.003-05:00

Hi there friends! I'm taking a bit of a break from the Tim tags/cards today to share a recent Paper Smooches creation. I love their images and recently purchased a few sets, one of them being this coffee-inspired set, Hot Concotions. Seeing as we have a dusting of snow and ice outside and I'm sitting at my PC sipping my second cup of coffee today, this is the perfect card to share!!

I used designer paper from Little Yellow Bicycle for this card and some paper piecing for the cup. I stamped and embossed the cup image on white cardstock and then restamped the image on the designer paper. The designer paper was cut out and glued on to the white cardstock. The small oval shape, acting as a shadow under the cup, is also included in the set and can be used as a shadow or as the beverage inside the cup (which I did too)...fun, right!!?

The tiny bit of steam is a piece of cotton that I pulled and fluffed before added with a bit of liquid glue. The sentiment was stamped on a paper banner and attached with one edge under the cup.

Enjoy and be sure to check out the Paper Smooches site!

12 Days of Christmas - Day Nine

2011-12-18T23:25:00.002-05:00

I have a confession...I haven't yet made the Day 10, 11 or 12 cards yet! And it's only one week until Christmas and I haven't wrapped anything and I have to go shopping, cook, create six handmade presents...Yikes!! Anyone else know how I feel? LOL! So...I'll try to get the last three cards finished but the reality is that it might not happen until after Christmas so be sure to check back often for updates! (Or sign up for email updates, link found on the right side of my blog)

Today's card was another adventure in creativity as I considered how I would re-create Tim's Day Nine tag, seeing as I didn't have any of the products that he used on his tag. I was actually almost finished with the card when I remember the snowman die and that fact changed the entire design of what I had in my mind!

This card started with lots of embossing...check out that shine! The background was actually embossed twice. First the background swirl image was stamped and embossed (the stamp is from Impression Obsession) and then red ink was applied to the entire background with a blending tool. Once the red was on the card, the entire card was embossed. Super-duper shine!

Then came Mr. Snowman, which I painted with Paint Daubers. Once the paint was dry, I of course sanded the edges for that vintage look! Then Mr. Snowman was nicely dressed with a scarf and holly leave (from Petaloo). The peace sentiment is from my stash of sticker letters and the swirl is from a Tim die. The final step was adding Glossy Accents to the letters for, you guessed it, more shine!

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for Day Ten...

Enjoy!

12 Tags of Christmas - Day Eight

2011-12-17T07:00:00.001-05:00

I'm back with the next tag/card and this one...it's a favorite!! I love all the little bits and pieces all over the card and the big 'ol challenge Tim put me through to try and come up with the parts that would work for this card because I had almost none of what he used on his tag! So...let's get started!! (And remember that for full instructions on the tags, visit Tim's blog)

For today's card I was missing the stamp sets, die cuts, and some of the embellishments that Tim was missing. However, I did have this fun dress form stamp set in my collection of Tim stamps and realized that it had the same look as the one that Tim used. My background was stamped with some of the word stamps that came with this set and the dress form was stamped on grungeboard.

Tim used a clock face die for the large background die but I used a punched scallop die from Spellbinders to act as my "clock." Tim used his gear die to fill the open area in the clock but since I didn't have the die, I picked up a fun package of gear stickers from Jolees.

I did have the film strip, vial label, and ticket so I was able to add those fun tidbits and then instead of adding a metal number 25, like Tim did, I opted to use this fun wooden game piece, which is noting the age I wish I still was! LOL!

This is so my style and I was just in love with the end results! A HUGE thanks to Tim for the inspiration and techniques!!

Enjoy!

Crazy 4 Cocoa Blog Hop

2011-12-15T08:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Crazy 4 Cocoa blog hop! We all adore Cocoa and thought it would be fun to showcase him all month long. Today, as part of the fun, the Sweet 'n Sassy Design Divas have joined together with e few of the talented Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Challenge ladies to bring a great Cocoa Mouse blog hop to you! Make sure you've got your warm drink and some chocolate...let's get ready to hop! Be sure to scroll to the very end of the post to read all of the details on the prizes!

So...I know, I know my Cocoa card is showcasing a warm day at the beach instead of snow and all things hoiday but seriously how could I resist using this charming little image from the Beach Bum Cocoa stamp set?! I know it's just barely the end of December but I'm already ready for the warm days of summer and I had a blast creating this card with the tiny banner (from My Favorite Things), flowery paper (from Jillibean Soup), and darling Cocoa in the sand!

The butterfly is from a Martha Stewart punch, the sweet twine on my banner is also from Sweet 'n Sassy, and the embossing on the green cardstock is from a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder. And the entire image was colored with Copics!! I hope you enjoyed my card and it made you think of warmer days to come!!

Want to see more Cocoa? Then join the rest of the team on today's blog hop! Here's the entire list!

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps

But wait...there's MORE!!! We want YOU to hop along with us! All you have to do is make a card or project featuring Cocoa Mouse and add your direct link to our linky tool below. One participant (drawn at random) will win their choice of ONE free Cocoa Mouse clear stamp set or FOUR free Cocoa Mouse digis! You have until Saturday, December 17 at 11:30 PM EST to add your direct link...go get stamping!

Don't forget, during the month of December we really are Crazy 4 Cocoa. The entire line of Cocoa Mouse clear stamp sets and digi images are 10% off!

12 Tags of Christmas - Day Seven

2011-12-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Day Eight's card! The tag that Tim created for Day Eight made me go out and purchase stamp set and Glassine paper!! He made me do it...honestly. *smile*

Today's tag was easy to create but included a very fun technique using the Glassine kraft paper. See Tim's post on how to use this very cool paper here. I never would have purchased it, not knowing what to really do with it, until I saw his video. And here's another fun tip...On the Day Eight tag Tim used a holly leave die to cut out his leaves. I don't owe the die so guess what? I just hand cut the leaves! Holly leaves are fairly easy to cut by hand so that's what I did for today's card...just use what you have while you can!!)

The leaves were created using the Glassine paper and then I simply added some branches, ribbon, sparkly stuff, and holly berries (pearl embellies that I colored with my Copic markers). The background of the card was aged with Distress Inks and the sentiment was embossed in black. Pretty easy today...Be sure to check back over the weekend for Day Eight's tag...it's my favorite so far!! And be sure to join the entire Sweet 'n Sassy team tomorrow for the Cocoa Blog Hop! Lots of prizes involved so don't miss out!

Enjoy!

12 Tags of Christmas - Day Six

2011-12-13T08:31:00.004-05:00

Welcome to Day Six and the first of my "doozey" cards...this are the tags that Tim created where I initially had a hard time figuring out how I was going to re-create his look in card format. On Day Six, Tim featured the embossing using sticky back metal sheets, which I confess are wonderful tools...love the metal! However, I had no metal in my stash and the store was out of stock so I could have either waited until new stock arrived or come up with something different.

So...I went with something different. Want to guess what it was? Aluminum foil! That's right, I grabbed a sheet from the kitchen, doubled it for extra strength, wrapped it around a piece of cardstock and ran it though my Big Shot, using a Tim embossing folder. The results? Stunning! The embossed metal was just beautiful, perfect the way it was, but I wanted to continue using Tim's techniques so I added the paint! I used paint from the Ranger Paint Daubers that I had in stock, which weren't holiday colors but I like them just the same.

Once the blocks of paint were dry I very lightly sanded the raised areas and since this wasn't actually metal I did need to be very gentle with the sanding. Once the sanding was completed, I covered the entire tag with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and clear embossing powder. Then the magic happened. Once the embossing powder was heated and cooled I was left with this amazing little piece of art that resembled an old license plate. Very cool!

My final addition was the metal piece, which Tim also used on his tag, but he used a wreath and since this wasn't a very Christmas looking card I opted to just add a metal tag and sentiment. There you have it...Day Six!!

Enjoy!

12 Tags of Christmas - Day Five

2011-12-12T08:58:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Day Five!! And I have to confess that I am running behind, not only with my posting but with my creating. I've made it to Day 7 so today...I need to be crafting!! :-) I only have to confess that the Day Five technique is a tough one for me...I can never get it to work the way Tim does! So...my card is slightly different today with my words being in black instead of white but all the other elements are the same.

In general, this was an easy creation (with the exception of that darn inking technique that Tim does so well and I can't figure out!!). The words, from the Papillon stamp set (from Tim), were stamped on to a piece of plastic, which was cut out of some packaging..isn't that cool?! I then used a die (Fall Greenery from Tim) to cut out some leaves and believe it or not the little branches things are from a tree punch...I just cut off the trunks! I created the wreath with the "trees" and then filled in with the leaves. I then only had to add pearls and a white bow...fun, right?

Be sure to check back on December 15 for the Sweet 'n Sassy Cocoa Blog Hop...Prizes and lots of wonderful designs to share!!

And check back tomorrow for the Day Six tag!!!

Enjoy!

12 Tags of Christmas - Day Four

2011-12-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Day Four!! (I need to get busy with posting, it's almost the end of the 12 days!!) This may not come as a surprise but I have been having a blast creating these cards and today's card is no exception! I adore the technique that was used to create the snowman. You can visit Tim's blog for all of the details but let's just say that the technique involves crackle distress paint...swoon!

I also love the icy look of this card, just perfect for winter. There are accents of painted plastic, glossy dictionary numbers, tiny bits of tolle, stamped snowflakes (from Sweet 'n Sassy), sparkly snowflakes, shiny buttons, and seam binding ribbon from The Cat's Pajamas (a favorite product, you should check it out!)....really, what's not to love!

Enjoy and check back often for more Tim-inspired cards! And mark your calendar for December 15 when Sweet 'n Sassy will be hosting a Cocoa-themed blog hop!! Can't wait!!

12 Tags of Christmas - Day Three

2011-12-09T07:00:00.002-05:00

Oh, that Tim...he's really going all out this year! He's using technique after technique and lots of new products...I'm really having to be super creative in 2011! LOVE IT!

Today's tag was super easy to create and although my card looks a bit different than Tim's the same technqiues were used; embossing, adding color with a blending tool and Distress Inks, and using gold Perfect Peals.

To start, I ran a piece of kraft cardstock through my Big Shot, using a holiday words embossing folder from Sizzix. I then used Distress Inks (all the new colors of course!) to add color over the embossing. The edges are nicely distressed and Walnut Stain Distress Ink was added for some depth. (Never underestimate that Walnut Stain ink...it really does add something wonderful to the edges of cards!)

And then for the bling...gold Perfect Pearls...doesn't that just rock! The gold shimmer is just amazing! I then added the twine and altered metal tag (had to go with that saying 'cause this project was definitely altered!). The greenery at the bottom of the card was created using Tim's fall die and Kraft Core-dinations cardstock. The three holly berries were actually white, I colored them red using Copic markers.

Enjoy and stop back tomorrow for more!!

Itty Bitty Wreath

2011-12-08T07:45:00.002-05:00

Another quick interruption to the 12 Tags of Christmas...My card created for this week's CAS (Clean and Simple) challenge this week at Splitcoast. (And did I mention that I did get a guest spot on the CAS design team - Yipp!!) This week's challenge was to use twine on your card. I'm loving twine! I also have this card posted on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog this morning...head on over there for all of the details and check back tomorrow for the next Tim card! Enjoy!

12 Tags of Christmas - Day Two

2011-12-07T08:44:00.003-05:00

I'm back with Day Two of Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas!! (You can call mine the 12 Cards of Christmas!) This is where I start to find different ways/products to use to re-create the looks that Tim has on his tags.

Today's tag features this darling deer image, which has been die cut using sticky-back canvas. (Love that stuff!) I also was able to use some of Tim's embossed Kraft cardstock. I don't have the Christmas line but used the one that I had. I also don't have the Distress Stain that Tim used on his tag, to make the background white, so I just used a paint dauber, which worked perfectly.

The other items I was missing? A holly stamp, the decorative die Tim used for the bottom of the card, and tiny green garland! I used a pine branch for the holly and used red Stickles to create the berry and I used two Spellbinders dies (a scalloped and plain) to create the wreath around the deer's neck. I also used gold paper and a scallop punch for the scallops at the bottom of the card vs. painting grungeboard with gold paint.

And so far the next few tags have really stretched my creative imagination in trying to develop clever ways to re-create the looks...so. much. fun.!!

Enjoy today's tag and check back on Friday for number three!!

Glitter Tree by Say it with Letters

2011-12-06T09:25:00.003-05:00

ETA: Wanted to let everyone know that I've entered this project in to the Dolce Stamps shine challenge for this week! You can check out the details here...prizes involved!!

I'm excited to be back sharing my December Say it with Letters project! (Back to the Tim tags tomorrow!!) For those of you who don't know, SIWL is a company that produces wooden letters and shapes (even custom work!) that can be easily altered with paint or paper. Check out their products, they're fabulous!

This month we're all focused on the holidays and my assisgnment this month was to alter a Christmas tree. As soon as I received this in the mail, I thought white and sparkly! (Quite a change for me as our own real tree is covered in vintage ornaments!!)

I knew that we had some great white sparkly paper in the store so I picked that up and got the tree covered. (I used Zip Dry to adhere the paper but any strong glue will work) I used white stain ribbon to cover the edges of the tree, again using Zip Dry. As I was holding ribbon, waiting for glue to dry, I spied the white rose ribbon sitting in my ribbon tray (ribbon by Tim Holtz) and thought I'd give that a try to see how it looked on the tree. Insert happy face as I attached the first piece of ribbon...love the white roses!!

Then I needed to add some bling...I toyed with all kinds of options but ended up using the rhinestone swirls from Zva. I just can't get enough flowers and rhinestones!! I then added a few icy blue single rhinestones to act as ornaments. (I actually started with red and my youngest, who was watching me, said, "Mom, you need to use blue, red doesn't look that good..." Smart boy!) The last element was this fabulous sparkly star that I picked up at my local craft store. A touch of hot glue held the star on perfectly!

Want to see what everyone else on the team created (you'll love the different designs!!), head on over to the SIWL blog!

Enjoy!

It's Tim Time!!!

2011-12-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

So...did you all go and visit Tim's blog last week??!! No, then get on over there because he has started the 12 Tags of Christmas! Yippee and Ya-Hooie!! I'm so excited about the 12 Tags!! This is my third year joining Tim and I can't wait to see what he has in store for the next week! And guess what? I had to re-create Tim's Day 1 tag..I know, you're not surprised, are you? Well...I did make one change this year. I opted to create cards instead of a tags this year...just for a little something different.

This tag was quite a creation! A whole lot of glue, distressing, sanding, die cutting, and glitter! I believe that my entire room, and perhaps my entire person, is covered in fabulous silver glitter! Love it! This was an involved project...lots of steps and time required but the end result is amazing! Really beautiful in person!! See Tim's blog for detailed instructions.

So...I have a confession...since I have been working at a scrapbook store, Wholly Scrap!, I'm able to pick up some of the exact supplies that Tim uses on his tags (oh, it's so bad!!) so my first card is almost identical to his tag. But...that won't be the case for the rest of the days. My favorite part of Tim's tags is the challenge to re-create a card or tag using the techniques that he uses, not necessarily uses all of the products that he uses. And I can't wait to share the next few tags so check back in each day for more!!

Enjoy today's card!

PSA Essentials - Cottage Cuz Blog Hop

2011-12-01T23:59:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the PSA Essentials/Cottage Cutz Blog Hop! I'm so happy to have you joining our group today! During today's blog hop, we'll be sharing ideas for creating your own handmade holiday cards and projects. And since this time of the year is so busy for everyone, I'm all for quick and easy projects!

We have a great list of designers joining us today and you should have arrived here from Lorie Souther's blog. (A complete blog list is included at the end of this post in case you got lost along the way!) Don't forget that there are prizes being offered during the blog hop so please read those details at the end of my post!

For my card today I went with a clean and simple design layout that can be used for any color combination, greeting, or image. Simply change out the pink cardstock for red, attach a piece of red and white designer paper, a Merry Christmas sentiment, and a tree image for a whole new look!

Now I confess that I have a thing for non-traditional holiday colors and this year pink has been my thing and what could be cuter than the color pink, a houndstooth pattern, and Hello Kitty! I adore the Hello Kitty images from PSA...they are darling! I have no doubt that my girlfriends would like nothing more than receiving a all girl-inspired card this year! And what pink card would be complete without a few rhinestones, glitter (on Kitty's hat and boots), and shiny Perfect Pearls!

I hope you enjoyed my CAS card (this would be a perfect design for mass producing cards!) and that you have an opportunity to visit the other ladies on the hop!

Your next stop is Pearl Liu...Here are the prize details!

PRIZE PACKAGE DETAILS: Readers who hop to each of the blogs, comment at each, and are a follower of PSA Stamp Camp will be entered to win the “Holiday Card” prize. This prize contains 3 Peel & Stick stamp sets, 1 stamper, 1 black ink & 1-2 color ink from PSA Essentials. The winner will also receive a $50 gift certificate to The Scrapping Cottage for the grand prize. There are also 9 opportunities to win a 3 x 3 die from The Scrapping Cottage.

Full Link List: Kay Norman

Angie Holden

Lorie Souther

Kim Schofield - You're Here!

The Scrapping Cottage

PSA Essentials

For my Friend

2011-11-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

So...I tried out for the CAS team on Splitcoast last week and...I made it to the semi-finals! That fact was so exciting for me! I love the CAS team and love their challenges...and it is a challenge...keeping it simple is not easy for this not-so-simple girl! However, it is a style that I definitely enjoy and want to keep working at perfecting! Unfortunately I didn't make it to the final round of try outs but there's always next time! I'm excited to see who they pick for the team!

Our second challenge for the semi-finalists was to create a card featuring presents. I created two cards for the challenge and this is one of them! (I ended up posting the other as it was a bit more simple and sometimes you can't help but wonder if you should have gone with the other option!!) No worries, now I get to share this card featuring a sweet present image from Sweet 'n Sassy today!

This image is from the Christmas Itty Bitties stamp set and is the greatest set that includes six itty bitty stamps! The design is fairly simple, an embossed panel and a few scallops on each side of the embossed area. My three little presents are colored in pink and glitter stripes (I've got a thing for pink lately!) and backed by a pink square.

While I didn't make the team this time, I hope you enjoyed today's card and you take a moment to check out the CAS message board on Splitcoast!

Enjoy!

PS - PSA Essentials blop hop on December 1 - be sure to check back for all the details!

Give Thanks

2011-11-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

Happy a few days after Thanksgiving! Did everyone have an enjoyable Thanksgiving? We had a blast and I'm excited to share a Thanksgiving page, featuring PSA Essentials stamps, from last year's feast.

For the past 10 years or so we've gotten together with a few families from our church. When my husband and I were first married we spent Thanksgiving with my side of the family (Christmas is with his side - yeah!!) and then a few years ago it became difficult to gather with my family in NY so we opted to say gathering with our friends, who are just about as close as family. And that is a blessing - a wonderful family and friends! Bonus!

All of our families together total about 14 people and we all bring a few dishes to share so none of us are burdened with doing all of the cooking. The fun part is that we each bring our best and favorite dishes to share. Each year I can hardly wait for sweet potato casserole, ham, and cranberry salad and one of the features of my page was to feature photos of my favorite foods!!

Since this page was fairly complex, I opted to focus on the photos and just a few embellishments. The paper banner was created by stamping and embossing a decorative image, from PSA, on kraft cardstock. I then used a blending tool and Distress Ink to color the banner; the embossing resists the ink. I then folded and stapled the paper to create dimension. The 'thanks' (isn't that font amazing?!) title was stamped also using PSA stamps. Since these are clear stamps, it's a breeze to line up the letters! The flower was created using Gluebers and ribbon (from Papertreyink) and the inside of the flower is another PSA image stamped in yellow ink. I added a few glittery leaves and the 'give' sentiment (using stickers) finished off the page!

Enjoy and be sure to check out all of PSA Essentials stamps...they rock!!

Snowflakes

2011-11-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

I have a post on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog today, featuring the above card. Come on over and check it out!

Enjoy and wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Lunch Bag Gift Card Holder

2011-11-21T08:55:00.003-05:00

Happy Monday my blogging peeps! How is everyone today? Ready for Thanksgiving? I can't wait! But before we talk turkey, let's talk gift card holders! This one is made from a paper lunch bag...isn't that the greatest idea! It's not my original idea but was inspired by a project found in Card Maker magazine. I'll be creating this project with my crafting buddies at an upcoming Wholly Scrap! class that is focused on using Spellbinders dies.

One of the goals of our Spellbinders class is to create a fairly quick and easy project, something that can be completed in about an hour and this project fits the bill! To create the paper sack card holder, I simply folded a brown paper bag in half and secured the sides with glue (hey, class participants, no creating your project early! LOL!) I then covered the front of the paper sack with papers from Little Yellow Bicycle (Winter & Wonder line). The dies used are from the Labels Nine set. I also used a Just Rite stamp set, You Inspire Me, to decorate the outside frame around the sentiment, from the Primitive Christmas set from Sweet 'n Sassy.

The inside card, which is easily pulled out by the little button tab (buttons and ribbon from Papertreyink), was created by embossing some plain cardstock and again layering the LYB paper. The largest Labels Nine die is the gift card holder and I simply cut a slit in the label for the gift card. A piece of foam tape keeps the gift card from sliding out of the slit. I finished up my project with a few Dew Drops and scallops.

Enjoy! And if you want to give this project a try, do so and leave me a comment with a link back to your blog or online gallery to show me your project. I'll give you until next Monday (great day-after-Thanksgiving project) to comment and then I'll pick a random winner from the list of commenters to receive a stamping grab bag of goodies from me!

It's Another Happy Birthday

2011-11-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'm on a happy birthday kick this month!! Did you know that this month is Sweet 'n Sassy's birthday celebration month! During the entire month of November (our 4th year in business - yeah!!), Sweet 'n Sassy is offering weekly sales! There are some amazing offers so please visit the SNSS web site asap!

Today's card, which is one I created for this week's CAS challenge over at Splitcoast, features my friend Ted (I don't know, doesn't he look like Ted? Ted the Turtle?) from the Gifts from Turtle stamp set and designer paper from Jillibean Soup. Nothing complicated about this card (as is the joy of CAS cards!), just an embossing folder, a notebook punch, and a few snips of ribbon. Love this sweet and simple cards!! (And I have a thing for Ted too...he's awfully cute..)

Enjoy!

Journey

2011-11-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

Just a quick card to showcase some new stamps that I recently acquired. Two stamps were used on this card, both from Memory Box. This is the first time I've purchased Memory Box stamps and I almost didn't as they are wood mounted stamps and honestly, I've kind of left my wood mounted stamps behind in favor of acrylic or unmounted stamps but these two images were so pretty that I simply had to grab them while I was visiting a local stamp store.

To create my card I started by embossing the card background with an embossing folder and then I simply added a piece of text designer paper and this fun die cut, from MFT, in black. For the main image panel, I started by misting the cardstock with Perfect Pearls, you can just see the shimmer in the upper right side. Then I stamped the print image, Journey Collage, in black and stamps the floral image, Birch Branch Print, on top of the text. Love it!! Last piece was this fun metal brad that I found in my stash, perfect color match! Don't you love when that happens?

Enjoy today's card and check out Memory Box stamps...they're fabulous!!

Halloween Dress Up

2011-11-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Hey strangers! Life continues to be busy and my crafting time has once again fallen by the wayside. However, I'm planning on spending an entire day stamping with a friend this coming Saturday. I am so looking forward to spending the day crafting!!

So today's project is a bit late with regards to holidays, seeing as we're on the verge of Thanksgiving (can you believe it??!!) and Halloween is long past. But I had to share this page, it's one of my favorites!

The stamps used on this page is from PSA Essentials and features this sweet Hello Kitty image. Isn't she darling hiding out under the tree? Surrounding the number 31 is also a circle of tiny bats, also from PSA.

The papers and stickers are from Best Creation and the black sparkley circles are new from Kasier Craft, called Sparklets...they're way cool. :-) The letters that spell out Halloween are grungeboard letters. And that cute little pirate? She's my friends daughter...she's pretty darn cute too!

Enjoy! Check out all of the Hello Kitty stamps from PSA, you'll love them!

Merry Christmas to You

2011-11-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Seriously, can we delay Christmas by say another three months? I'm just not ready, no matter how many Christmas cards I create! :-) Who has started their shopping already? Me? I plan to start on December 23... Today's card features stamps by Just Rite and die cuts by Spellbinders. Last month we started a Spellbinders club at Wholly Scrap! Club members are give an opportunity to purchase Spellbinders dies and Just Rite stamps, when applicable, at a discounted price and during our meeting we create one or two CAS projects. Spellbinders has generously donated product for retail stores along with samples for instructors to re-create. Last months card sample was created by Kim Crawford. I adore Kim's work and was excited to try out her card layout. I was also excited to try out the matching stamps and dies. Love them! I was just stunned at how pretty these ornament stamps and dies were, the photos don't do them justice. Dies are from the Heirloom Ornaments set and the stamp set is Merry & Bright. I plan to definitely create more cards with these products!! A big thank you to Spellbinders and Kim Crawford! Enjoy!

Sweet 'n Sassy Birthday Hop

2011-11-07T08:00:00.003-05:00

Hello and welcome to the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Birthday Blog Hop! Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is so excited to be celebrating four wonderful years! I met Korin a few years ago during a stamping event in PA and we connected right away, she's a blast and a much loved Christian sister!! When she was looking for new DT members, I simply had to try out and I've been blessed to be on the team for two years now. I love this team so much that I'd be happy to stay forever!! :-) I couldn't be more excited for Korin and am so happy to celebrate this fourth year with her and the rest of our wonderful team!

A fantastic group of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps design team members past and present, along with some special friends, have put together this fabulous Birthday Blog Hop to kick off a whole month of fun. We have 36 stops so the hop will take place over three days - feel free to take your time visiting each blog! You have until 11:59pm EST November 9th to leave comments on as many blogs as you can. On Saturday, November 12th Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps will announce FOUR winners (chosen at random from comments on random stops along the hop); each lucky winner will receive a prize pack including stamps, dies, paper & twine valued at $40!

If you have been following along already you should have come from Taylor Usry. If you are only starting here, please head back to the SNSS blog and go from there. You won't want to miss any stops along the way! Also, don't forget to comment on as many stops as you can....the more comments the better your chance of winning one of the fabulous prize packs! :)

My card features this darling turtle image and sentiment from the Gifts from Turtle stamp set. My sweet turtle was colored with Copics and paired with designer paper from Cosmo Cricket. And the layout is from this week's Sweet Stop challenge blog!

Ready for the next stop? Your next stop on the hop is Monika Davis but just in case there are any hiccups, here is the whole list of celebrants on this party train:

Korin Sutherland

Taylor Usry

Kim Schofield - You're here!

Holly McMillen

Winter Stocking

2011-11-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

I have a card posted on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog today! Hop on over to check out all of the details!! PS - Another big blog hop is scheduled for Monday! Be sure to stop back by for all of the details and eye candy!!

Sweet 'n Sassy Release Day Celebration

2011-11-03T08:00:00.003-04:00

Greetings! Welcome to the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Release Day Blog Hop! This month we have are doing something really fun - the Design Divas and the Digi Team are hopping together, to celebrate the fabulous clear stamps, digis, and dies being released tonight!! Grab your favorite cuppa and maybe some of that yummy chocolate the kids collected this week and get ready for some amazing eye candy!

Don't forget to join us tonight at 8:00PM EST in our member company forums over on Splitcoaststampers - we have a great release party planned! There will be full reveals of all of the stamp sets, digis and dies, plus challenges AND prizes!!! Once you have stopped by each blog, come back to the SNSS blog and leave a comment letting us know what you think of our November release. You won't want to forget this step because we've got a HUGE prize up for grabs.....the ENTIRE NOVEMBER RELEASE valued at over $130!!!!!....that's 6 stamp sets, 3 die sets and 11 digis!! Tonight at the release party we'll announce our randomly drawn winner from the comments on this post. If you have been following along already you should have come from the Sweet 'n Sassy blog. If you are only starting here, please head back to the SNSS blog and go from there. You won't want to miss any stops along the way!

My project for the blog hop includes this darling Rhubarb image from the new Rhubarb's Winter Fun set, which includes not one, not two, but three sweet Rhubarb images! I couldn't resist using Rhubarb holding a big 'ol mug of coffee...I know it should probably be hot chocolate but the truth is that I'll always pick coffee over hot chocolate! I used Copic markers to color Rhubarb and paired him with darling paper from Jillibean Soup. I also created some snow by free hand cutting a few snow hills and adding a bit of ink to the hills to give them definition. And since I opted to cut Rhubarb out to pop him up on the snow banks, I had to cut off the stream coming from his cup 'o jo. So...I used wires to create the steam...Fun, right? I added the sentiment with some faux stitching and the buttons, which are covered with fabric, are from SU!

How about a second card with a new second set!!?? This beautiful swirly snow image is from the soon-to-be-released Snowflake Flouish set. Isn't is divine? Not only do I love swirls but snowflakes and swirls...it's almost more than I can take! And how about the darling font used on the sentiment, love that too! My two images were paired with new paper from Little Yellow Bicycle called Winter Twig. To create my swirl image, I first stamped the image in VersaMark ink and then embossed it with white embossing powder. Using Distress Ink I went over the entire embossed image, using a blending tool. The lovely black and white twine can also be purchased at Sweet 'n Sassy. So...are you ready for the next stop??

Your next stop on the hop is Sandy Domelle but just in case there are any hiccups, here is the whole list of team members sharing new release goodness today:

SNSS Blog Kim Schofield - You're Here! Sandy Domelle Ceal Pritchett Mary Faus Janette Olen Makiko Jones Kim Singdahlsen Jessica Fick Stephanie Wright Dina Kowal Holly McMillen Carol Longacre Taylor Usry Cathy McCauley Margo Smith Bridget Finlay Harriet Skelly Monika Davis Korin Sutherland

Happy Birthday Sweet 'n Sassy!!!

2011-11-01T09:17:00.002-04:00

This month Sweet 'n Sassy is celebrating their 4th birthday!! Yeah!! I'm so excited to be able to celebrate with the entire SNSS team! And we're celebrating with all of you with month long sales and specials! Check out all the details on the SNSS web site! We'll also be sharing birthday themed Inspiration Challenges each week on the SNSS message board. Details here! (PS - There are prizes involved this week!!)

For my card I just had to use a birthday image and I chose a darling Cocoa image from the A Cocoa Kind of Birthday set. I paired Cocoa with darling paper from Jillibean Soup and some fun red and white twine.

Be sure to check out the Sweet 'n Sassy web site for sale details and check back on November 7th for our huge birthday celebration blog hop! (We also have a November release party on November 3rd so check back for those details too!!)

Enjoy!

Party Girl from PSA

2011-10-31T07:00:00.001-04:00

****IMAGES REMOVED FROM THIS POST FOR PUBLICATION**** Please check the May 2012 Issue of CARDS Magazine for photo and instructions! Hey out there in blog land! I'm excited to share a new PSA Essentials card today! Most of my PSA projects are scrapbook pages, which I adore, but I've been itching to use their stamps for card making too! Knowing that a friend of mine had a birthday last week, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to use this darling martini girl image! Isn't it adorable??!! (I even added a tiny red rhinestone to act as the cherry in the martini! *giggle*)

The base of this card is covered with with amazing sparkly paper by My Minds Eye. I then created a number of scalloped and embossed circles and a sparkly rosette to act as a frame around my party girl. The paper banner has been stamped with a text stamp from Tim Holtz. The inside of the card has a sentiment that says "skip the cake, eat the icing!" The funny part about this card? I created it right before heading out to dinner with my friends and promptly forgot it on my dresser at home! Arrrgghhhh....Well I know she'll enjoy receiving a fun, glitter-filled card in the mail! :-) Enjoy and head on over to PSA to check out all of their fabulous stamps!

Spellbinders Club

2011-10-26T09:35:00.002-04:00

We're starting a new monthly club at Wholly Scrap!...a Spellbinders Club! Each month we'll use a different die, and maybe even coordinating Just Rite stamps, to create a quick and easy project. Club members have an opportunity to purchase Spellbinders and Just Rite products at a discount! Live in the New England area? Contact us and sign up for the club!

This is our project for this month, a super cute ornament! And I have to share that I adore the coordinating stamps for this set...so pretty! I used Tim Holtz embossed kraft paper for the bottom layer of the ornament and then created the top layer by stamping in red ink and coloring with green Copics. The sentiment is embossed in gold. The designer paper is from Kaiser Craft. I could imagine making a bunch of these ornaments in all kinds of colors and designs - fabulous!

Enjoy!

Drawer & Card Gift Set

2011-10-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday! Boy, I took an unexpected break from blogging last week! It wasn't for lack of items to post but merely a lack of time to take photos and get posts created. Hopefully, I'll be more productive this week and you'll have more fun posts to read!

Today I'm sharing a project that I'll be demonstrating at an upcoming Wholly Scrap! class. I found a tutorial for this darling drawer and gift card set on Splitcoast. Although I will be forever template challenged (I seem to always make measuring mistakes...please tell me I'm not the only one!), I found the drawer template easy to create and assemble. And I managed to measure and cut right the first time! LOL!

The paper I used for the drawer and the cards is from Kaiser Craft and is called the Hunt and Gather Collection. It's a beautiful paper line full of nature scenes, like birds, fish, and big 'ol bugs! The design also has a very vintage feel to it, which I love. Above you'll see a closer shot of the drawer. Don't you love that it even includes a little handle to pull the drawer out of its sleeve? So cute! The little saying on top is also from the paper line, which included a 12x12 sheet of journaling cards and sentiments. The paper is so pretty that the top didn't need many extra embellishments.

For the cards inside the drawer I decided to primarily use the remainder of the journaling cards since they were the perfect size for a standard card. For this card I only added ribbon, a button, and two phrases from the paper. Love the idea of discoveries and treasures, especially when one is out in the beauty of nature.

My second card features some of the designer paper and this delightful bug card. It's a massive bug that would probably cause me to scream if I ever saw one in real life, but he looks quite handsome on my card!

To dress up this card I embossed the main card and then added the cream designer paper. The two butterflies are from a Martha Stewart punch. I did add a bit of stamping, fun text from a Tim Holtz stamp, to the sticker file tab. (This line also came with a 12x12 sheet of fabulous stickers)!

And this final card features more embossing and this wonerful quote from Dr. Seuss. I also used the gold Dew Drops throughout the entire project to tie everything together. I ended up really liking the earthy color palette of the designer paper and cardstock. Right up my alley!! :-)

Enjoy today's project!!

Sweet 'n Sassy & The Twinery Blog Hop

2011-10-19T08:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the Sweet 'n Sassy & The Twinery blog hop! So glad that you found us and that you stopped by for a visit! By participating in the blog hop you'll have an opportunity to win one of two amazing prizes; The Twinery will give away One Ultimate Color Sampler Pack (a retail value of $25.00). The Sampler Pack includes 14 bundles of colored twine! And Sweet 'n Sassy will give away the beautiful Season of Change stamp and matching die set (a retail value of $28.00) All you have to do is stop by the blogs on the hop list and leave a comment! You have until October 22nd to leave a comment! The winner will be announced on The Twinery and Sweet 'n Sassy blogs on October 23rd. For the entire blog list, you can visit the Sweet 'n Sassy blog. You should have come here from Hera Frei's blog.

So how do you like the twine? I LOVE it and was so excited when Sweet 'n Sassy began carrying The Twinery's product! This card features two Sweet 'n Sassy stamps sets; Light of Christmas (this has turned into my favorite text stamp) and Snowflake Silhouettes. I used a fun new technique to create the snowflake background; stamping on canvas and embossing with white embossing powder. Once I had embossed the snowflakes I covered the entire piece of canvas with Distress Ink (Broken China and Tumbled Glass) and then spritzed the entire piece with Perfect Pearls. The Perfect Pearls creates a great shimmer! I frayed the edges of the canvas for that rustic look. A big of distressing, thanks to my Pumice Stone Distress Ink, a sentiment, a sparkly flower, rhinestones, and that lovely twine, in Charcoal, were the finishing touches!

I hope you enjoyed the card! Your next stop on the hop is Jenny Suchin. Don't forget to leave a comment on each of the blogs for a chance to win! Have fun!!

Hey Chickie

2011-10-18T09:23:00.003-04:00

A sweet card I made with Paper Smooches stamps! I used sentiments (I adore Kim's fonts) to decorate the paper banner and this darling chick from the Chubby Chums set. I LOVE this set! The sentiments are from the Sentiment Sampler set. Paper is from Cosmo Cricket. The "chickie" next to the, ahem, chickie actually says "hey chickie," I just opted to drop the "hey" so the word would fit on the circle. **smile**

Enjoy and be sure to check back in tomorrow for the Sweet 'n Sassy & Twinery blog hop!

Seasons Greetings

2011-10-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

I have a card posted on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog today! Head on over for a visit and all the details on today's card! Stamp set used, Christmas Joy.

Boo!

2011-10-13T09:40:00.003-04:00

Hi folks! Welcome to another rainy day in the Northeast! Blech! It's a good day to stay in and craft! Too bad I've got one sicky kid and I'm off to work later this afternoon. Double blech! :-)

So today I'll share a happy Halloween page that I created for PSA Essentials. My October assignments included using the UBU Happy Halloween stamp set. Since we don't do much for Halloween and both of the stamp sets I used for this month's assignments screamed girl, I had to put out a plea to my friends for girlie Halloween pictures! A dear friend of mine offered up photos of her sweetie girl for my scrapbook pages!

To create this page I used designer paper in the background (from Wholly Scrap!) and used the colors in the paper to drive what colors I would use on the rest of the page. The green dot paper is from Bo Bunny and the orange paper has lovely glitter all over it..perfect for pictures of mermaids. The text in the background is actually the story of Sleepy Hallow, which is just printed out from my computer. The BOO! letters are from a pack of grunge letters that I covered with decorative paper. The first PSA Essential image that I used can be seen in the photo above; the little ghost and the Happy Halloween sentiment.

The second PSA Essentials image is shown above, the dressed up little girl, which I colored, cut out and attached with foam tape. The other pieces include a few stickers from Best Creations, Sparklets from Kaiser Craft, and the rossette is from a The Cat's Pajamas die.

Enjoy and be sure to check out the tons of stamp images from PSA...very fun stuff!

Love Monster

2011-10-10T09:47:00.003-04:00

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend! I spent mine just trying to catch up on sleep and relaxation after an incredibly busy week. The weather here in the Northeast was summer-like, hitting 80ish yesterday! It was a great weekend to get outside and we found ourselves a nice farm on Saturday where we could go pumpkin and apple picking and let the kids see some farm animals. Fun times (and I managed to not cook one meal over the entire weekend - BONUS!)

A huge thank you to everyone who left comments during the Operation Julie's Smile blog hop. I'm hopeful that the small donations along the way will help Julie fix her emergency dentist issues. I also wanted to mention another hop that is taking place today for Katie Renz. For those who do not know Katie, she is battling cancer. It's a heart breaking situation and the entire family could use your support and prayers. You can read about the hop and Katie's story here (the hop is sponsored by I heart Papers.)

Now on to today's creation! A tag featuring stamps by Paper Smooches! I created my tag by using the Tim Holtz large tag die (love that I can create a large tag in any color!). I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder to emboss the tag and then use white ink to highlight the embossed areas. Tissue tape (also from Tim) was used as a ribbon in the background and then I added the designer paper (notebook die from MFT), white circle, and spotted monster! I should note that the stamp, included in the Falling For You set, does not include dots. I drew those in after I colored the monster and then filled them in with a white gel pen. Buttons are from Papertreyink and twine (a perfect match to my monster!) is from Sweet 'n Sassy.

Enjoy! And thank you again for all of your wonderful comments. Please be sure to check out the Katie Renz hop as well...

Operation Julie's Smile

2011-10-07T08:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome! I'm so excited to be a part of the amazing blog hop for Operation Julie’s Smile. If you came here from Taylor's blog, then you are in the right spot. If not, you may want to start from the beginning at the Sweet Stamp Shop’s blog and take your time. You have ALL WEEKEND to hop with us and win prizes!

The next stop on the blog hop is Monika Davis!! Here is some background on what this blog hop is all about! Julie Ranae is the design team coordinator for many wonderful companies from bakers twine, die cuts, rubber stamps and more. What many people don’t know about Julie Ranae is that she has had some pretty major dental surgeries in her lifetime due to medication she had to take as a child. It was in her plans to think about having all of her teeth replaced at some point in the next 5 years, a decision that was pretty easy to plan out. But then it happened…she chipped her front teeth on a weekend a month ago. The dentist told her there was no way to save them & that it was his recommendation that she give in and have them all her teeth removed soon, but for that day, they needed to get her front teeth done so her gums could begin to heal. He said he would 'work out payments with her to have ALL this work done...but when she called to make her appt for the first step of impressions, they told her the amount of money that was needed and that the 'payments' applied only to the two teeth that were extracted that day. Her husband Paul was with her & that too, was his understanding as well. So this is how she has found herself in this situation…Needing at least $4000 to get started and another $3000 to finish the process…a total of $7000.

Nicole Rixon, owner of Sweet Stamp Shop put together this benefit after finding out about this situation and before Julie Ranae knew it, it took flight! Because she is an event organizer by trade, she has taken on the job of organizing all of the blogs in this hop as her way of ‘working overtime’ for what she needs, the same as if she were able to work overtime at an outside job to pay for the work to be done. It is the goal of all of these generous friends & sponsors to help make this situation more do-able for our friend so that she can share a brand new smile with all of us soon. If there is anything you can do to help with a financial donation, there is a donation button ready for you to click. Any amount is appreciated and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool of over $2500.

My card features stamps from Sweet 'n Sassy, this set is called Sew Happy. The design paper is from Jillibean Soup. I used this stamp set because of the sweet sentiment on friendship. I know you may hear this a lot but the craft community really is one of the best out there. I love that so many people have come together to help out a friend. Please try to give, even if it's a small amount, to help Julie out of this difficult financial situation.

Thank you so much for stopping by to visit, I hope you enjoyed your stay! The next stop is Monika's blog. Make sure you leave a comment here before you go so that you can have a chance at the amazing prizes up for grabs!!

Treat Holder

2011-10-05T09:07:00.003-04:00

Hi there! I'm excited to share this super cute and super simple project with you, which I created for a make 'n take we had at Wholly Scrap! last week! This cute test tube holder was created by following instructions found on Splitcoast, here. The holder was covered with Halloween paper from Best Creation. For the owl, I simply punched an owl out of the designer paper, layered a black circle, and added a few liquid pearl dots! The Happy Halloween sentiment is also cut out from the paper and attached to velvet ribbon with a tiny safety pin! Fun stuff!! Why not give this project a try today? It would be perfect for party favors too! You can purchase these tubes at Wholly Scrap! for .99!

Enjoy and be sure to stop back on 10/7 for a HUGE blog hop to help out one of our fellow crafters!!

Inspiration Challenge

2011-10-03T07:00:00.000-04:00

I was hopping around Splitcoast this weekend and stumbled upon the Inspiration Challenge. I don't think I've ever created a card for this challenge so I thought I'd play along! The challenge was to use a photo from the online store, 2Modern. I took a look around the site and found a beautiful grey and white pillow that I fell in love with! It was the perfect piece to inspiration me to create my card!

I started with a tree silhouette stamp from Sweet 'n Sassy, Love is Like a Tree set. I used white embossing powder to emboss the image on white cardstock. I then covered the cardstock with Pumice Stone Distress Ink. Once the piece was inked I used a cloth to remove any extra ink from the image and then misted the entire paper with Perfect Pearls. In the photo you can see the shimmer, love it! I used a blending tool to add a bit of black ink to the edges of the paper. I then used the Light of Christmas background stamp to add the script. (Even those this is a Christmas set, the text is small enough to work for any card!)

The side panels simply contain two pieces of designer paper and some velvet ribbon and bling. The sentiment was stamped on a white circle, mounted on a black circle and then I added some faux stitching. The added a few dots of liquid pearls to the paper banner. The finishing touch was a tiny pink butterfly! I really liked this challenge for this week...why don't you check it out!

Enjoy!

Embossing with Sweet 'n Sassy

2011-09-30T07:00:00.000-04:00

Greetings! I have a card posted on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog today, shown above! On the blog I share a few embossing tricks and techniques...check it out!

Stamps sets used on this card, all from Sweet 'n Sassy, Serene Silhouettes and Flowers in Bloom. Button from Papertreyink and seam binding from The Cat's Pajamas.

Enjoy!!

Back to School

2011-09-28T09:01:00.004-04:00

I know it seems a little bit late to be showcasing a back to school scrapbook page but when you homeschool, your start date can be a little flexible. Our family is in to week three of school so I'm clearly running a bit behind on my posting! :-) This page was part of my second September assignment for PSA Essentials.

This page features paper from Pink Pasilee, tissue tape from Tim Holtz (along with stamps, grungeboard letters/numbers, and a die cut ticket), and a banner die from My Favorite Things. The letters to spell out my title are from the Vanilla Peel set.

And these darling Super Star and A+ images are from the Super Star set. I love how the PSA stamps can be used with a border, as I did with the Super Star image, or without, like the A+ image. So many options! You can read more about this page and their products on the PSA blog, here.

Enjoy!

Celebrate Today

2011-09-27T08:48:00.003-04:00

What a great sentiment! We don't know if we have more than today so we should thank God for it and celebrate! And this darling sentiment, as well as that sweet owl, are from Paper Smooches! This is a card that I'll be demonstrating at a Wholly Scrap! class next week! Come join us!

The background was embossed with a folder from Sizzix, stamp sets used are Pretty Phases and Chubby Chums.

Enjoy!

Praying for You

2011-09-26T09:21:00.003-04:00

The title of this post should be "running late!" I created this card last week for the Splitcoast CAS challenge, which was to use leaves, and I'm just now getting it posted...a week late! Egads! My pile of craft projects is growing; scrapbook pages, mini albums, Inspiration Challenge canvas (did anyone attend this class? It was great!), and DT projects. Is it possible to get a job, where you get a paycheck, creating all day? If so, someone let me know where it is 'cause I want it! **smile**

On to the card! This is first a beautiful leaf stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy called Season of Change. These leaves are a solid stamp but contain a swirl design within the image...stunning! Second...I cut these out using Sweet 'n Sassy's new dies!! Can I tell you how excited I am about the dies...Over the moon!!! Love, love, love it! Can't wait to use this die with felt...oohhhh...

So here is last week's CAS card...Let's see how I do with getting this week's card created before next week...

Enjoy!

Joy, Peace, Love

2011-09-22T09:41:00.003-04:00

It kind of pains me to consider that Christmas is just a few short months away but I suppose I must face the facts sooner or later...The best way to ease into the coming holidays? Create Christmas cards!

Today I'm sharing a card created with PSA Essentials stamps. This is a combination of stamps; a snowflake set, words from a Christmas set, and holly leaves from yet another set! I used a bunch of stamps to create the background and then heat embossed the images with gold embossing powder. I then stamped the holly leaves on scrap paper, colored them with Copics, and cut them out to attached to my punched circle with foam tape. I added some red Stickles to the berries 'cause every card is better with a little bling! A piece of satin ribbon finished off my card!

Be sure to check out the PSA Essentials web site to see all of their fabulous designs!

And I need to mention that PSA is holding a Holiday Card Sweepstakes on their Facebook page. PSA is giving away 5 Personalized Peel & Stick stamps and will also give each winner 1 Peel & Stick pack, 1 ink, the personalized stamp, and free shipping in US or Canada, $75 value. WooHoo! The sweepstakes started on 9/15 and ends on 10/15 so hop on over to the PSA Facebook page and sign up to win!

Enjoy!

Fall Hike with PSA Essentials

2011-09-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'm super excited to share my first PSA Essentials project!! A 12x12 scrapbook page focused on a hike that I took with my family last year. I was so excited to break out these new stamps and I had a great time creating with them! For this page I used the PSA Vanilla Peel & Stick stamps to spell – "HIKE" and a decorative bee image from the PSA Country Home set. I started my page by adding a boat load of punched circles, which were sewn into place.

I stamped the word "HIKE" on cream cardstock and then used a 1 1/4" circle punch to cut out the letters. I backed them with dark brown cardstock using a 1 3/8" circle punch. The designer paper is from Little Yellow Bicycle (this is from an old collection...I've just been waiting for an excuse to use this!) The orange cardstock was dry embossed with a wood grain embossing folder from Tim Holtz. The "FALL" letters are grungeboard (also from my BFF Tim) and I inked them and stamped on them before attaching to the page. The flower is from Petaloo and the bees were stamped on cream cardstock, colored with Copics, cut out and attached to a few places on the page with foam tape.

My journaling was done on the computer and after I printed out the page I used a set of Nestibilities dies to cut out the shape. A few scallops and wide twill tape were the finishing touches! Be sure to check out the PSA Essentials web site and blog for more details and to go shopping! These stamps are seriously FUN!!

Enjoy!

Inspiration Challenge

2011-09-20T09:34:00.002-04:00

Howdy! Did you know that each Tuesday Sweet 'n Sassy hosts an Inspiration Challenge on Splitcoast? You can check out this week's challenge here. And...I'll share the inspiration photo too!

Aren't those the cutest stuffed owls ever? Oh, to have a little girl's room to decorate. :-) For my card, I went a little outside of my comfort zone (have been pushing myself to do that more lately) and created a CAS card with little banners. This style of card definitely isn't typical for me as I'm more of a "lots of layers and bling" kind of designer but I continue to be so impressed with cards created by real CAS artists (and it is an art to be able to balance simplicity and design!). So I continue to my quest to learn more about how to create those types of cards....It's a work in progress! LOL!

For my card I used the super fun Seeing Spots stamp set. I love this one, perfect for those CAS cards! I stamped individual images on little cardstock banner and then glued the banner onto a piece of twine (also available from Sweet 'n Sassy). My card was created with layers of plain cardstock (I do like the texture of Bazzill cardstock) and a layer of clear embossed words. I only added six little perfect pearl dots as embellishments. (Oh, and I confess that I didn't use the blue color from the inspiration...I just loved the look of the pink, brown, and green too much!)

Enjoy and be sure to check out the weekly challenge!

Cozy

2011-09-19T09:56:00.006-04:00

Tap, tap...is this thing on? Goodness, I've been quiet on my blog lately, haven't I! Last week was a whirlwind of a week; we started our first week of school, I ended up covering for two full days at Wholly Scrap!, had three hour meeting one morning, and we had not one, not two, but three appointments! Talk about barely keeping my head above water! Let's just say that I am so thankful that this week promises to pass at a slower pace! But enough about me, how about my very first Say it With Letters Project!!

My first project was to decorate these charming MDF letters that spell COZY. The first thing that popped in my head when I saw the letters was "Cozy Kitchen." Since I had a boat load of beautiful Websters Pages paper left from a recent class project, I decided this would be the perfect design for these letters. (This fun yellow also happens to match my dining room walls perfectly!)

This paper is from the Spring Market collection and one of the things I love about Websters Pages is how they create stickers, buttons, and all kinds of embellishments that coordinate with each collection. For this project I used the paper, stickers, and buttons to decorate the letters.

Another fun trick for utilizing WP paper is to cut out many of the designs that are printed on the paper. For example, the seed card on the letter "C" is cut out from a 12x12 piece of paper, as it the jelly jars on the letter "O" and the bird on the letter "Z." Cutting out the images really allows you to get more out of the paper. It's like having a 12x12 page full of embellies!

For the buttons, I stacked them two high, another fun technique I picked up from designer Michelle, over at The Paper Dog. This paper is so pretty that there wasn't a need to add too many extras....just a few stickers, cuts outs, rhinestones, and buttons. I didn't even paint the letters before adding the paper (use Zip Dry for applying the paper to the letters) as I really like the look of the unfinished MDF. And here the letters are in my dining room, above our basement door...I love the look!

Interested in purchasing these letters? It's super easy! Visit the SIWL Etsy shop here. The cost for the four letters? Only $16.00! What a great deal! All of the letters come with keyholes for hanging on the wall, oh and they are approximately 8" high. Love 'em! And SIWL can cut just about any shape or letter...read more about their product on the Etsy page!

Enjoy!

Sweet 'n Sassy Sneak Peek - Take Two!

2011-09-15T11:59:00.000-04:00

Welcome to another day of Sweet 'n Sassy sneak peeks!! Have you been following along all week? If you're interested in all of the peeks, visit the SNSS blog!

Today's card is showcasing this fabulous script background stamp...love it! The name of the stamp is Light of Christmas and will be released tomorrow night at our release party! (Don't know about the release party? Visit our page on Splitcoast!)

For this card, I really wanted to highlight the stamp, although I fully intend to use this as a background behind the cardinal image I share a few days ago! Since I wanted the image front and center, I opted to simply color a die cut square with some Distress Inks...of course leaving a moon shape in the center. (Although wouldn't a star shape have been fab too!) I then dry embossed the background added a small rosette (from MFT), a button (PTI), and twine to the front with a sentiment. This sentiment is from the SNSS stamp set, Primitive Christmas. A hint of blue from grosgrain ribbon and more of those perfect pearls were my finishing touches!

Enjoy and be sure to visit the SNSS blog for the rest of the DT's peeks!

Nutty for You

2011-09-13T10:00:00.003-04:00

I'm nutty for Paper Smooches stamps!! Seriously, are these not the most precious images that you've ever seen? I love Kim's plump images and amazing fonts. I sat down at my craft table on Saturday afternoon and banged out not one, not two, but four Paper Smooches cards!! Yippee!

And I'll be demonstrating how to create these cards at my Wholly Scrap! card class next month, on October 8! Image is colored with Copics, designer paper is from someone whose name I can't remembere...LOL!, the seam binding is from The Cat's Pajamas (note that it wasn't brown...I used Copics to color a cream seam binding...fun!), and those tiny pearls are from my new favorite product, Perfect Pearls.

Enjoy!

Sweet 'n Sassy Sneak Peek

2011-09-12T11:59:00.000-04:00

Yippee! It's sneak peek time again! I love when we get an opportunity to share some of the soon-to-be-released Sweet 'n Sassy stamp sets with you! And you're going to love this month's sets, they're beau-ti-ful!!

Today's card features the Christmas Joy stamp set - love it! Such a pretty cardinal image and wonderful sentiments. I opted to watercolor my cardinal and in doing so realized that I miss watercoloring! I used to watercolor frequently before Copics hit the market. For this card I pushed dye ink onto the lid of my stamp pad and used a water-filled pen to pick up the ink. The paper on my card is from last year's stash...I think it's from Basic Grey, it's a stunning pattern. Love the addition of the black and gold dew drops.

Want to see more? Check out the entire DT peeks at the Sweet 'n Sassy blog!

Enjoy!

News!

2011-09-10T10:00:00.006-04:00

Hey guess what? I've been asked to be on another design team! And I'm super-duper excited about this one...It's Say it with Letters! Say it with Letters creates custom wood cut outs of letters and shapes. I'm so excited about the opportunity to create with their product!

And to wet your appetite...here's a little sneak peek of my first project, which I'll share next week!

Enjoy!

Tiffany Doodles Blog Hop

2011-09-09T08:00:00.002-04:00

Greetings to all of the wonderful and loyal Tiffany Doodles fans out there! Today Tiffany Doodles is kicking off a 3 day Blog Hop! You will find inspiration along every stop! And of course, there are tons of prizes in store for you!

Be sure to participate every day by commenting on each post & following every blog to be eligible for all prizes.

The hop continues tomorrow starting at Tiffany Doodles! In order to qualify for all prizes you must:

participate everyday
comment on every participants post
follow every participants blog
Special Note: Make sure that your Blog and Email are listed in your Blogger profile for notification purposes. If your email is not visible on your profile make sure it is easy to find on your blog. Thanks!

While your hopping keep in mind a SALE that is going on this weekend at the store!! All Bird and Flower Digital stamps are on sale for 25% off! No coupon necessary, discount will be taken at the register. PS. Even more sales listed below!

By participating daily in our Blog Hop you will be eligible for prizes! Lots of prizes! Total Prizes valued at OVER $220!! All winners will be chosen randomly. Every day we will chose 3 winners from the main TD blog. Your participation on the other blogs will be verified prior to announcement. If you have won you will be notified by email, so make sure you email is easy to find either in your comment, your blogger profile, or on your blog. All winners will be announced on the blog after the hop is over. Prizes will be awarded as follows:

Day 1 - 3 Winners

Day 2 - 3 Winners

Day 3 - 3 Winners

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
3 winners *	3 winners *	3 winners *
* $10 Shopping Spree * 50 Doodle Soup Reward Points * Fall Leaves (png) Elements Pack for each winner

Even if you don't win on 1 of the 3 days - you still have a chance to win the Grand Prize!! The Grand Prize will be chosen randomly from the main TD blog from all participants from everyday.

On today's Hop we are featuring cards made with a lovely sketch made by Jenyfur at Torn Paper! And of course, all stamps throughout the blog hop are featured by Tiffany Doodles!

There are 2 ways to earn extra entries!!

1) You can earn extra entries for today's prize if you make a card with this sketch!

If you would like too, link your card through inlinkz on the main blog post.

Enter as many times as you wish! One entry per card submitted.

2) If your not up for making a card, you can write your own post

about our Blog Hop & Tiffany Doodles Digi stamps!

If you post about us you can earn 5 extra entries!!

I'm excited to be playing along with Tiffany Doodles' Blog Hop as a guest designer! Thanks so much for asking me to be a part of the hop Tiffany! For my card I used the Cherry Blossom digi image. This is one of my favorite Tiffany Doodles images! (Go figure, it's a flower!! **giggle**) I paried the image with paper from Basic Grey. The image was first printed out on my printer and then colored with Copic markers. The sentiment is from Sweet 'n Sassy.

September Sales

Besides the Blog Hop sale we have going on, we are also having 2 other sales in the store!

Design Team Member Call

We currently need someone who can make TD digis into Cut files! ~~Video Tutor Details Here.~~ Position has been filled. Thanks. Cut File Maker Details Here.

Banner Spots Available Tiffany Doodles blog gets an average of 5,000 to 7,000 visitors per month!

Would you like to get in on that action? Now accepting banner spots for the blog!

Click here for pricing info!

Here are your blog hop links for today, Day 1....

We will see you again tomorrow starting at Tiffany Doodles! I can't wait to show you the beautiful cards we have in store for you!

Let's Go For a Ride

2011-09-07T08:07:00.003-04:00

First things first!! A HUGE thank you to everyone who commented during the SCS Fall Fun Blog Hop! I love reading everyone's thoughts!! And next, the winner of the stamping grab bag is...

Joan Ervin said... This is sooo cute...love the little bear standing in all the grass and the background papers are beautiful!!!!

Joan, please contact me at ksdm@comcast.net with your shipping address!!

My last card from the Acetate Card Class, which featured stamps from Hero Arts! I love this set, Let's Go for a Ride, that contains lots of fun bicycle images and coordinating sentiments!

For my card I created a little scene using paper from Momenta. The hill was free hand cut, the sun was cut using a 1 1/4" punch, which I colored yellow, and the cloud is from The Cat's Pajamas (the cloud border die). The bicycle was stamped on white cardstock, cut out and attached with foam tape. I added a few rhinestones because I can't seem to create a card without rhinestones anymore! Oh yeah...I started by stamping bicycle images all over my acetate card, using Staz-On black ink. The look on the inside of the card is pretty cool too!

Enjoy! And be sure to check back on 9/9 for the Tiffany Doodles blog hop!!!

Fall Fun Blog Hop

2011-09-05T09:00:00.004-04:00

Hello and welcome to the Fall Fun Blog Hop! A group of online buddies decided the Labor Day holiday weekend in the US would be a GREAT time to get creative (is there ever a bad time?) so we've put together a fall themed blog hop to inspire you as the autumn approaches. Some of today's bloggers may have goodies for you, so be sure and visit everyone on the list. We have hoppers from all over the globe today and they are amazing artists.

Thanks for visiting us - grab yourself a nice fall beverage and enjoy! (Full link list below) My card features a darling digi image from Sweet 'n Sassy and one of my newest steel dies from My Favorite Things. This sweet bear is named Rhubarb and he's one of the newest addition to the Sweet 'n Sassy gang (there's even a full stamp set featuring Rhubarb!) and this image is called Rhubarb and Birdie. I colored Rhubarb with Copic markers and then cut him out so he could stamp up in my lush die-cut grass, which came from the Fresh Cut Grass die. The fun leaf and tree paper (seen on the inside of the card) are both from Momenta. These are great textured papers, the leaves are all embossed and there is a slight shimmer to the paper - very pretty! My card is a tent card, adore this style of card...perfect for this type of image. My frame was created with Nestibilities circle dies and the sentiment is also from Sweet 'n Sassy. Hope you enjoy and the next person in our hop is: Cathy McCauley

PS - Leave a comment and be entered into my drawing for a grab bag of stamping goodies! I always have way too much so I'm happy to ship off a box of designer paper, stamps, embellies, etc. to another crafter!!

Here is the full list of our blog hoppers today:

Kim Schofield - YOU'RE HERE!

Keep it Simple Sunday

2011-09-04T07:00:00.000-04:00

Oh the glare! But late at night it was the only way to capture the fun embossed swirls on my acetate card. *smile*

This was a card I created for a Wholly Scrap! class, where we used acetate as our card bases. This was a 4.25" square card that was embossed with an embossing folder. Then all I had to add was a bit of designer paper and this darling monster from Hero Arts. Isn't he a cutie! I also paper-pieced Sir Monster and the balloon. For my faux googly eye (oh how I wish I had some in my stash!) I stamped the eye on white and then used Glossy Accents for a little shine. It's not a googly eye...but it's close!

Be sure to check back in tomorrow for the Fall Fun Blog Hop! Lots of eye candy and prizes in store!

And Away We Go

2011-09-01T09:42:00.002-04:00

I adore shaped dies. I adore them so much that I'm teaching a class next week at Wholly Scrap! where we'll use a bunch of The Cats Pajamas dies. I can't wait.

Today's card features the following dies from TCP; Cloud Border and the banner from the Easy Rosette set. And that sweet little bunny is from the aptly named Away We Go set. (I also adore this bunny!) The fun, sparkly designer paper is from Momenta and the clouds were cut out of fun felt, also available from The Cat's Pajamas. And do you see those tiny pearls on the banner? They are from one of my new favorite products, Perfect Pearls. I love this product...It's amazing! You must go and buy at least 10 bottles of this stuff...it will change your life...OK, not really but you will have fun crafting with them!

Enjoy!!

You Bring Joy

2011-08-30T10:29:00.002-04:00

Hi all! I'm back from a day spent without Internet access...oh, the horrors! Seriously, I can live without the lights but no Internet, it's almost more than I can stand! Thankfully, our area was not hard hit by Irene...my thoughts and prayers are with those who suffered more damage.

Today, I'm sharing a card that I'll be demonstrating at an upcoming Wholly Scrap! class. The class will focus on using some of those fancy new steel dies that are on the market. (And hey, did you know that Sweet 'n Sassy is offering dies now too! LOVE that!!) For this card I used the Notebook Edge die from My Favorite Things. I adore this die! I love the tiny notebook loops and how the die even creates a perforated line. So much fun!! The image is a beautiful stamp from Sweet 'n Sassy called Flowers in Bloom. I love this set! So fun and easy to color and it's the perfect size for so many card layouts. Speaking of layouts, mine was inspired by this card. (And I literally just realized that we both used a sentiment with the word "joy" in it!) The designer paper on my card is from Pink Paislee and the ribbon is from Papertreyink.

Enjoy! Oh, and Sweet 'n Sassy is hosting a challenge on SCS today...check it out!

Keep it Simple Sunday

2011-08-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Sunday! I'm pre-posting on Saturday night just in case we're without power and ***gasp*** Internet access today! And believe it or not I'm back with a Keep it Simple card to share! This is a sweet card layout that I CASE'd from Tammy Hershberger. (Hi Tammy!!) Tammy demonstrated stamping on acetate at our OH Stamping Around event and I loved her sweet cards so much that I had to create my own! I used the Just Saying Hi stamp set from Hero Arts to create my card...love those old-fashioned phone images! The inside of the card contains the plain yellow cardstock and the blue plaid designer paper (from Graphic 45). The outside of the card contains the kraft scalloped piece and the heart paper, also from Graphic 45 (the Wizard of Oz collection). I then simply added the phone image, the sentiment (both stamped in black Staz-On), three rhinestones, and the black ribbon. Easy peasy! Enjoy!

Paper Smooches Birdie Thanks

2011-08-26T09:55:00.003-04:00

Greetings! Just a quick post to share today's card, which is one I created a few weeks ago using the fabulous Paper Smooches digi stamps!

I created the cloud background with a hand cut cloud stencil and sponges. I also hand cut the tree branch, which I then embossed with a bark embossing folder from Tim Holtz. The leaves were also hand cut and attached with glue. The bird was colored with Copics and I added a sweet moss nest for her. The sun is just a punched circle with a little bit of yellow Distress Ink!

Enjoy! And if you don't hear from me for a few days it's because Ms. Irene has knocked out power in New England! Will be back asap!

Altered Canvas

2011-08-24T09:46:00.003-04:00

Hey, I'm on a roll this week!! Let's go for yet another project and posting today! Yippee!!

I'm super excited about this project...an altered canvas! Last week I had an opportunity to attend a class, which is a real treat for me since I'm usually the one teaching. :-) The class was held at Talk, Paper, Scissors and was taught by Michelle Daigle. (You can see her beautiful work on her blog, The Paper Dog)

Michelle cut a bizillion 1" squares of designer paper, which the class attendees used to create the beautiful background on our 8" x 10" canvas. She then provided us with a box full of tiny trinkets, buttons, ribbon, and flowers. Perfect for decorating! She also used a Cricut to cut out any word or letters that we wanted. Love that we were able to personalize our canvases!

We didn't fully finish the project at the store (I didn't bring photos with me) so I finished the canvas after I got home. I printed out three B/W photos and then used foam tape to pop them up ever so slightly. I also added the 'enjoy the journey' sentiment and an 'adore' tag. Perfect sentiments for expressing the love of life with my wonerful family.

This was such a great project and I can't wait to add my canvas to my living room wall! I loved this so much that I asked Michelle to come teach at Wholly Scrap! We're looking forward to having her join our team of instructors! For more details, visit the Wholly Scrap! blog.

Enjoy!

The God of all Grace

2011-08-23T10:24:00.005-04:00

Hey, I'm on a roll with posting this week!! **Smile** Did you know that every Tuesday Sweet 'n Sassy posts an Inspiration Challenge on Splitcoast? If not, head on over to the Inspiration Challenge Forum to check things out!

Today's challenge is a color challenge based on the picture below. Isn't that the greatest color combo? And I love the texture on the couch! Fabulous!

I started my card by first looking for a fun layout and I found one on the Mojo Monday blog. There were so many great layers on this week's layout that I knew it would work well for a card that would be full of color, patterns, and textures. I actually built my card before I had determined what stamp I would use! I used strips of designer paper from Cosmo Cricket and a few embossed pieces of cardstock...Had to carry over that textured theme! Since I had so much going on with the card design I chose to keep the image simple...a great Scripture text from the Amazing Grace stamp set was perfect! I bit of aging on the circle, a few rhinestones, decorated stick pins, and butterflies were perfect embellies. To bring in the green, I opted for just a hint of that color with the use of the ribbon and button.

Enjoy and head over to the Inspiration Challenge Gallery to check out all of the visual goodness!

Featured Stamper

2011-08-22T10:50:00.003-04:00

Hey, guess what? Korin was the Featured Stamper on Splitcoast yesterday! I had to create a card to add to the gallery!

Here is the card that inspired me in Korin's gallery: Inspired Tree. I love, love, love the text in the background of Korin's card! I created mine by first masking off a sun and using Distress Inks to create the background. (Yes, I know...yesterday's card consisted of a mask, a sun, Distress Inks...but I love this technique, I can't help myself!) I kept the sun mask on and then used the French Script background stamp from SU! to add the text. The next element was this great grass image from the Serene Silhouettes stamp set. The dragonfly is from the same set. And then I added a sentiment from the set that Korin used on her card, Love is Like a Tree. The brad is also from SU!, the cardstock colors are the same as Korin's card.

Enjoy and why not stop by SCS to check out the Featured Stamper gallery!!

Keep it Simple Sunday - Autumn Leaf

2011-08-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

Goodness, where have I been?! Sorry I've been away from the 'ol blog for so long this week, no real reason just busy with life I guess. :-)

It's been ages since I've had a KSS card and this card that I created for last week's Sweet 'n Sassy release party is the perfect fit!

The leaf image on this card, and sentiment, is from the newly released Autumn Leaves stamp set. Isn't it pretty! Check out the entire new release on the SNSS web site!

The creation of this card was simple...I created a mask for the circle, using a Nestibilities die, and then colored in the circle with a variety of Distress Inks. I then stamped the sentiment half in the circle, half out (after removing the mask of course!) The leaf was stamped on a scrap of cardstock, colored with Copics, and attached with foam tape. Three little rhinestones - my obsessive "go-to" lately, finished off the card! I should also mention that this is a smaller than average card, 4.25" square.

Enjoy!

Take Time for a Friend

2011-08-17T07:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Wednesday! Today I'm sharing a fun card that I created for a Wholly Scrap! class last week. Our class focused on stamping on acetate and we all had a great time playing! (You can see one of my other class cards, using the same stamp set, here)

This card features a background stamp from SU!, which I stamped in white Staz-On ink. The inside of the card is just plain gray cardstock, which has been folded in half and attached to only the back of the acetate card. The pink band was created with a Spellbinders die. This was the first time I've used a decorate edge die and I love it! Great way to add a fun embellishment to cards! My center white piece of cardstock was cut out using a Nestibilities die and then run through the Big Shot with an embossing folder for added texture. The images are from a Hero Arts stamp set, What's Perking. Isn't the toast image a blast! Love it! I simply colored the images with Copics, cut them out and popped the up with foam tape. I also added a fun pink ribbon, from American Crafts, to the bottom of the sign. And PS - Adore the pink/grey color combo!!

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy today's card!

It's Release Day!

2011-08-15T10:32:00.002-04:00

Have you heard the amazing news? Sweet 'n Sassy is the newest Splitcoast Member Company! We're all so excited and can't wait to visit with each of you over on our new Forum! But that's not all...Tonight is our Fabulous Fall Release Party! Starting at 8pm, visit the Release forum for challenges and reveals of all of the new August releases...Prizes are involved!! :-)

Today I'm sharing another card using the beautiful new set, Flowers in Bloom. I took a fairly simple approach to today's card, focusing more on aging the paper that highlights the floral image. I used distress inks, water, and some paper crinkling to age the paper and then I stamped the image. The black cardstock in the background was embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder and then I matted the image on cream and kraft cardstock before attaching to the base. A quick addition of some twine and rhinestones (I've suddenly become the queen of adding three rhinestones to all of my cards!) were the perfect finishing touches!

Be sure to clear your schedule at 8pm tonight and join us for our release party...It's going to be a blast!!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

2011-08-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one who starts singing a David Bowie song when I think about a blog post with the word 'changes' in it? :-) Well...there have actually been a lot of changes going on over on the 'ol Paperie Petals blog for the past few months but I haven't gotten around to blogging about any of it...until now!

I'm super excited to announce that I'm joining the PSA Essentials Design Team! (You can read all about the newbies here) I stumbled on PSA stamps a few years ago and thought they were very interesting and different so when I saw that they were looking for DT members, I thought I'd give it a try!

PSA manufactures self-inking custom stamps. They have a variety of styles and ways to personalize. The stamp comes ready to go, with black ink already assembled so you can start stamping right away. There's no assembly required! Their stamps features a patent-pending PEEL & STICK® technology. Peel away your inner or outer ring and stick on a new one for added customization and design. Think of it as “switchable middles!” You can read more about their products on their web site.

The other totally fun news is that in addition to creating cards I'll also be specifically working on scrapbook pages for the PSA team. Super excited about the opportunity to dive more in to scrapbooking!! I suspect that I'll begin showing some of my PSA work in about a month so stay tuned...

In other news, I stepped down from the Tiffany Doodles and SALT design teams. At the time I was overwhelmed with consulting work, homeschooling, design work for classes, etc. and I needed to take a step back and take a breather! Now work has slowed down a bit and I've scaled back on some classes so the joy of designing has returned! I also have some other fun news to share but I can't share just yet...

Enjoy your day and be sure to check out the new DT list on the left hand side of my blog!

Sweet 'n Sassy Sneak Peek - Flowers in Bloom

2011-08-11T11:59:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the next Sweet 'n Sassy sneak peek! Have you been following along with the sneak peeks this week? You can find them all on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog! Be sure to check out all of the design goodness!! Today I'm sharing a card that features the soon-to-be-released stamp set, Flowers in Bloom. Hello, flowers? I couldn't be happier!! This set features this beautiful floral image and a number of sentiments. I paired my image with embossed Core-dinations paper and if you've never used this paper...go out and buy some, it's so much fun! The paper has already been embossed with various designs and then when you sand the paper, the design is revealed. Fun! I also added a strip of designer paper from October Afternoon. The image has been colored with Copics and my butterfly stamped twice so that I could cut out one butterfly and pop up the wings...also added just a hint of Stickles. Enjoy today's card and be sure to check out the blog for links to other sneak peeks using this same set!

Celebrate

2011-08-09T20:56:00.005-04:00

Greetings!! I'm super excited about today's project because it includes a technique I've been wanting to work on for months!! In the Spring one of the Wholly Scrap! customers taught a class using Elizabeth Craft stickers and glitter. I was amazed at her beautiful cards but couldn't attend the class so I just picked up a set of these cupcake stickers. (We have a wonderful selection of these stickers in the store!)

To make these images you place one of the outline stickers on top of a sheet of wonder tape (also called Red Line tape). You'll want the sheets of these tape, not the roll. I cut out a piece of wonder tape that was just a bit larger than the sticker. I then poured a very fine white/clear glitter over the wonder tape, pressing down to adhere the glitter to the glue. Shake off the excess and then...color right on top of the glitter with Copic markers!! Love, love, love the results! Isn't it the coolest thing ever! It's even more shimmery in person!! I ended up cutting out the cupcake image and used foam tape to pop it up on a Nestibilities circle. (The designer paper is from October Afternoon). Oh, and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches! That's right, I got myself a whole lotta Paper Smooches stamps!

Enjoy today's card and be sure to check back tomorrow for some fun news!!

Sweet 'n Sassy Sneak Peeks!

2011-08-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

It's the most wonderful time of the month...The time when we begin our countdown to the release of new Sweet 'n Sassy stamp sets!! WooHoo! And this month that's not all...I've got a wonderful little secret that we're going to be announcing soon. You're going to have to keep checking back to find out what that secret is all about but it's big news I tell ya, big news!! :-)

Today's card is featuring the stunning new set titled, Autumn Leaves. I love leaf images as much as I love floral images. So much you can do with them and they're so pretty!! I have a feeling that I'm going to using this stamp set a lot!

I tried out a new technique - well new to me - with this card. Stamping and coloring on acetate. I had this idea after looking through tutorials on Michelle Zindorf's blog (I love Michelle and her work, so beautiful!) I think she used dye inks and a watercolor brush to color her images but I opted to use Copics, which worked perfectly.

I first stamped the leaf images on to my piece of acetate and then I turned the acetate over and colored on the non-stamped side. I found that I was even able to do just a bit of shading with the Copics, although you need to work fast as the ink dries almost instantly. I then stamped the sentiment on the front, added some bling and brads and my card was complete! Oh, I did use some lovely patterned paper under the acetate, this paper is from Pink Paislee...a wonderful soft, vintage print.

What to see some more lovely artwork created with this stamp set? Check out the following DT blogs or visit the Sweet 'n Sassy blog for more info!

Bridget Finlay

Taylor Usry

Korin Sutherland

Enjoy!

Baked with Love

2011-08-05T12:35:00.002-04:00

Today we're having a layout challenge on the Wholly Scrap! blog, check out all of the details here!

I'm sharing two more of my March scrapbook pages, Baked with Love, and really...one day...I'm going to figure out how to take stunning photos of my scrapbook pages because my cheesy little digital camera misses so many of the fun details! I think Kimmy needs a new camera for Christmas... :-)

For these two pages I used designer paper from Kaiser Craft, the Nan's Favorites collection along with a number of coordinating die cut elements. This paper has a great vintage design to it and I love the little touches of aqua and red. I highlighted the red by using red glitter covered letters and then paired those with the toned-down look of the grunge letters, which were colored using Distress Ink.

More of those fun die cut elements on this page, the cherries, journaling box, and sentiments at the top of the page. And see those cherries running along the right hand side of the photos? That was the tiny strip of paper at the bottom of every 12x12 sheet of paper, the one with the UPC code on one side! Love to use those scraps!! The stamps sentiment, seen on the journaling tag, is a stamp from Ali Edwards. You can purchase her stamps, which are awesome for scrapbooking, at Technique Tuesday.

Enjoy today's craft and be sure to check out the challenge details on the Wholly Scrap! blog!

Precious Little One

2011-08-03T09:50:00.004-04:00

Greetings friends!! I'm continuing the Wholly Scrap! challenges today, you can check out all of the details here, and today's challenge is a color challenge!

Our colors are orange, yellow, & blue. Swatch colors can be seen on the Wholly Scrap! blog along with submission and prize details. Check it out!

Today's card features a darling image from Sweet 'n Sassy. This little sweetie elephant is part of the Baby's Circus stamp set, which comes with three baby animals, the circus podium, and a whole bunch of sentimewords that can be mixed and matched to create custom sentiments. This is definitely one of my favorite baby sets!!

The designer paper on my card is from Little Yellow Bicycle, the Baby Saurus line. I colored the elephant with Copic markers and then stamped another head, colored it, cut it out, and attached it over the original elephant head with foam tape. You know...I can't live without foam tape! :-) The little bits of ribbon are an orange twill from Wholly Scrap!

Enjoy and be sure to stop by the Wholly Scrap! blog to read all about our two weeks of challenges!

The Magic of Oz

2011-08-01T10:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome friends!! Today I'm featuring a card made with products from Wholly Scrap! For the next week weeks, I'm going to be hosting challenges over on our store blog and we'd love to have you play along! Prizes will be given for challenge winners and we'll gladly ship to anywhere in the US (sorry my dear international friends!!). You can check out all of the details here.

My card was created using paper from Graphic 45, "The Magic of Oz" collection. Love the last few releases from Graphic 45, perfect for creating without even stamping! I used a cut our of Dorothy as my focal point and then built upon that by adding vintage stick pins, red glitter stars, and black rhinestones. The alphabet paper is from Core-dinations and is actually part of today's Wholly Scrap! Takeover Challenge.

I'll be back on Wednesday with another challenge and a Sweet 'n Sassy card to share!! Check back and enjoy today!!

What's Perking?

2011-07-29T09:47:00.002-04:00

Today's card is in celebration of Hero Arts stamps! Love them!! I picked up far too many sets when I was in Ohio at the Stamping Around event (Toyrifix sells a good selection of Hero Arts stamp sets...and they ship!)

When I was in OH, I was also inspired by Tammy Hershberger's acetate card class and decided that I'd love to offer the same type of class at Wholly Scrap! This is the first card I created for the class.

I used the What's Perking stamp set for this card 'cause I love all things coffee! I stamped the images on kraft and opted to not color (shocking!) but I love the look of the plain black lines on the craft cardstock. The designer paper is from GCD Studios, the pre-folded acetate cards are from Hero Arts (I purchased mine from Toyrifix). The gold ribbon is from Papertreyink and the gingham is from SU! And since we're playing with acetate it makes perfect sense to also decorate the inside of the card, which is where my fun sentiment is located!

Enjoy and have yourself a big 'ol cup of coffee today!!

Beary Happy Day

2011-07-27T09:00:00.000-04:00

Pssst....I have a card posted on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog today! Check out all of the details here!

Enjoy!

Stamp Set Revisit - Woof You

2011-07-23T09:59:00.002-04:00

Happy Saturday friends! Is everyone enjoying at least a small break from the insane heat this weekend? Today when I walked outside, I was met with cooler temps, which is a blessed relief from the past few days of over 100 degrees! Strange weather for the Northeast!

Today I'm sharing a card that I created for a friend of mine that had a stressful week...Sometimes just knowing that you're loved and someone is praying for you brings some comfort. And since my friend has a thing for cute little puppies, I had to use this darling Sweet 'n Sassy stamp set, Woof You.

I colored this cutie with Copic markers and paired him with paper from TaDa Creative. (I love that flowered background paper...so cute!!)

Enjoy and have a blessed weekend!!

The Sky is the Limit

2011-07-21T08:54:00.002-04:00

Remember the Stamping Around event in OH? Remember that it was hosted by a great toy/stamping store called Toyrifix? And remember that I came home with far too many new stamps, dies, and other goodies? Well I'm finally pulling those new goods out of their bags, where they have been living for the past month, and made a card for the Toyrifix challenge (you can check it out here).

Today's card, which was made for a brand new high school grad from our church, was created using the super cute Cat's Pajamas stamp set, Away We Go. I love these bunny images...those ears...so huge and fabulous! And how about those clouds? I'm finally jumping on the shaped die bandwagon and since Toyrifix was carrying all kind of fun dies, I had to purchase a few! The cloud die is called Cloud Border and it's also from The Cat's Pajamas. My designer paper is from Echo Park.

Enjoy and remember...The sky is the limit!

Bee Happy - Use Paper Smooches Stamps!!

2011-07-19T13:59:00.002-04:00

When we were at Stamping Around in OH, Julie told me about Paper Smooches stamps. I said, "sounds interesting." And then she showed me the Paper Smooches stamps and I said, "AHHHH!!! I need them!!!" Seriously, these are some darling stamps and I can't wait to place an order!

In the meantime, how about I share a card using one of their FREE digi images!! You can see more samples on their blog. I also confess that I'm submitting this card for their August guest designer spot. I'd be giddy, tickled, and just plain over the moon for the guest spot! So, ummm, Kim...pick me, ok? :-)

This was a pretty straight forward design and I actually used scraps to make the card. Love when that happens! The card size is more narrow than a standard card, only about 3.5" wide. I ran two pieces of cardstock through the Big Shot, using two different embossing folders. Such a great way to add dimension and design to cards, without a lot of work. I did add an extra set of wings, covered with glitter of course, and colored the stripes with a gel pen so they're nice and shiney (wish there was a good way to photograph that shine!!). The sentiment was made in to a paper ribbon and attached with foam tape.

Enjoy today's card and go check out Paper Smooches web site, you'll love their stuff!

You Make Me Smile

2011-07-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the next Rhubarb sneak peek!! Have you been following along with this week's amazing Rhubarb designs? A new image has been released on the Sweet 'n Sassy web site each day for the past week...and there's still more so be sure to check on the SNSS site each day!!

My card is showcasing the Rhubarb's Sunflower image...isn't it adorable? I love the giant sunflower. I colored the image with Copics and paired the image with designer paper from Niki Silvis. The layout started out as this week's Sweet Stop layout but I ended up leaving off a layer...no room! :-) I do love the sentiment on the half circle at the top of the image. The sentiment is from the Seeing Spots stamp set.

Enjoy today's image and card and have a lovely weekend!!

Have You Met Rhubarb?

2011-07-14T12:12:00.002-04:00

Introducing Sweet 'n Sassy's newest darling digi creation - Rhubarb!! The cutest little teddy bear ever!! All this week Korin has been showcasing a number of new Rhubarb images...Saturday I'll have a new image and card to share!

Today I'm showing off the Rhubarb Enjoys the Pool digi image, which is perfect for us as we just purchased a new pool for the kids! I colored the image with Copic markers and added lots of scallops! The layout is from this week's Mojo Monday challenge. Just a piece of ribbon (Papertreyink) and rhineshone embellishments to finish off my card!

Enjoy and be sure to stop by the SNSS web site to see all of the images that have been released so far...there are more to come!!

Happy Birthday Scrapbook Pages

2011-07-11T22:40:00.008-04:00

So what have I been up to? This Saturday I spent the entire day scrapbooking! What a blast! And except for the massive mess I had to clean up, see above photo, it was fabulous! A friend of mine, who adores creating Christmas-themed cards, came over for the day, my hubby watched the kids, and we got down to some serious creating! I finished eight pages for my 2011 scrapbook! Too bad that only covered me for the month of March...Oh honey, it looks like I'll need another scrapbooking day... :-)

On to those scrapbook pages! The first page, which I think we'll actually turn in to four because I had so many photos from Bean's birthday party, are of our oldest's birthday party. The title page is below.

I'm drawing a complete blank for the name of this designer paper and I used up every square inch of what I had. However, this was a birthday specific paper line so I was able to also pick up a sheet of cardstock stickers, perfect for embellishments! I used all of the papers in the backbround and only added a yellow scalloped piece of paper and a piece of cork (that's fun!). I used stickers for the embellies and buttons from Papertreyink. The letters are from Tim Holtz and I colored them brown with Distress Ink.

Here are the other two pages. Very simple layout and these were actually pages that I demonstrated at a Wholly Scrap! beginner scrapbooking class last year. It was great to just add photos and a few stickers. I still need to add the journaling but I was a woman on a mission Saturday and had no time to stop for journaling! Something I need to add asap!!

That's how I spent my weekend, what did you do?

Enjoy!

Thinking of You

2011-07-08T09:39:00.007-04:00

A few days ago I was looking through some of the Splitcoast galleries and I came across a card where the creator said she made a "long and lean" card. I loved that description and the layout so a few ago as I was putting away a bunch of paper scraps I came across a few "long and lean" scraps and knew I had to turn them in to a card!

All of the pieces of this card are from my scrap pile! The designer paper is from Jillibean Soup. The dark green design was exactly that size and all I had to cut was the orange background paper...love when that happens with scraps! The text image is from SU! and the darling tulip image is from the Spring Tulips stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy. The ribbon is from Papertreyink. I know there are some big 'ol shadows on this photo but I like that you can see the dimension of the flowers from mounting that image with foam tape.

So what do you think about the long and lean layout? It's fun, right? We had a guest speaker at our church this weekend and he's a pastor from a very small town in upstate NY, where there is a lack of work and life is hard for their church members. I think this card is destined to be sent to someone in their church, to let them know that someone is praying for them. :-)

Enjoy your weekend!!

Wish You Were Here

2011-07-06T09:11:00.002-04:00

I do actually wish that some of my out-of-state friends and family were here in lovely NH during the summer. It's a beautiful area and I love living here!! :-)

Today's card features images from a recently released Sweet 'n Sassy stamp set, Beauty by the Sea. This is a card that I'll be demonstrating during a Wholly Scrap! class later this week. The class is focused on creating a set of CAS cards using this set and the Happy Ocean Friends set. I'm looking forward to playing with these great sea-inspired stamps!!

To make the background of this card I grabbed a large acrylic block and attached the large shells stamps to the block...instant background stamp! The ink color is Tumbled Glass from Ranger. I then stamped two shells on cardstock, colored them with Copics, cut them out and attached them to the oval with foam tape. A perfect CAS card layout!!

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday USA

2011-07-03T07:00:00.001-04:00

ETA: I failed to member a great new challenge blog a friend of mine told me about...The Birthday Sundaes challenge blog! It's a blog dedicated to birthday-themed challenge, fun!! Head on over and check out this week's challenge!!

Happy July 4th weekend to everyone! Hope you're all enjoying some time off from work and are taking some time to relax with friends and family! We're headed to a local town parade and then off to a BBQ, where we plan to ingest large quantities of meat and sweets! :-) Today's card is perfect for a Keep it Simple post and this simple card only took me two evenings to complete! Don't you just hate when that happens? Some nights I just stare at a pile of paper and stamps and can't seem to come up with a thing. So...I walk away. I came back to the studio last night and had this card completed in about five minutes!! (Even with learning how to use my brand new Bow Easy, which was given to me by a dear crafty friend! And...I LOVE it!!) My card features a brand new image from the newly release Seeing Spots stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy. Love this set, there are literally hundreds of options with these darling round images. I stamped the star three times and punched out the images with a 1" circle punch. I embossed a 3.5" square of kraft cardstock to showcase the mini stars, and I added a piece of twill (check out that fabulous bow...thanks to Bow Easy!) to the embossed cardstock. A little happy birthday sentiment - sent out to our great country on this holiday weekend - finished off this CAS card. Enjoy!

Sweet 'n Sassy Sneak Peek - Love is Like a Tree

2011-06-30T11:59:00.000-04:00

Have you all been following the Sweet 'n Sassy sneak peeks? Aren't the cards and images fantastic!! Love seeing what's going to be released on the 1st!

Today I'm sharing a card that features stamps from the Love is Like a Tree stamp set. I love tree images and this one is no exception! I especially love the heart image that comes in this stamp, it fits perfectly over the tree branches...how cute is that!?

My card creation is fairly straight forward...Cardstock grass, fun heart paper from Jillibean Soup, wide twill tape, and a few rhinestones makes for a perfect card that says I love you. :-)

Enjoy and be sure to stop by the SNSS blog to check out the other DT creations!

Sweet 'n Sassy Sneak Peek - Take Two

2011-06-29T09:59:00.003-04:00

How about one more sneak peek with the soon-to-be-released stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy! This is from the Seeing Spots stamp set, which I just love! This is one of those sets that where card ideas pop in to my head throughout the day! Although I confess that today's card is a shameless CAS from the new SU! catalog! **smile** I love showcasing these small images in different colors. I simply added a few embossed lines around the outside of my card, clear rhinestones, which are colored with Copic markers to match the ink color, and an embossed label behind the stamped images. Easy peasy!

Enjoy!

Sweet 'n Sassy Sneak Peek

2011-06-26T11:59:00.000-04:00

Welcome to day two of the Sweet 'n Sassy sneak peeks! Oh, how I love the days leading up to release day!! It's so much fun to see the teams creations and get a peek at some of the images that will be included in the new sets.

Today I'm excited to share a card made with the "Seeing Spots" set. Can you guess what it has that name? That's right, it's a set full of darling round images and small sentiments! My card is showcasing the butterfly image, which I stamped four times in Mustard Yellow Distress Ink. I used a 1" circle punch to punch out the images and then attached them with foam tape to the four squares. The designer paper is from October Afternoon and the rhinestone swirl is from one of those big 'ol craft stores that shall remain unnamed. :-) I also added tiny pearls to the butterflies to act as little bodies.

Be sure to stop by the Sweet 'n Sassy blog so that you can check out all of the other sneak peeks!

Enjoy!